Nazarene Missions International (NMI) has a legacy of hands-on participation. It was this rich heritage that resulted in the founding of NMI more than 100 years ago. The passion to be directly involved in missions fostered the partnership between Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) and NMI, resulting in the ministry of
Crisis Care Kits.
In the early 1990’s, Nina Gunter, then global NMI director, was visiting churches with then the Los Angeles District NMI President Lois Ward, informing and inspiring pastors and NMI leaders about missions. After an evening service, the women were loading their materials in the trunk of Lois’s car when Nina noticed an interesting package and asked about it. “That is a Compassion Pack,” said Lois. She explained that she drove her husband into downtown Los Angeles regularly for medical treatments. Passing numerous homeless people on the way, Lois saw a need and assembled bags that contained food and hygiene items. She distributed them as she drove to and from home.
Upon Dr. Gunter’s return to Kansas City, she told the NMI Office team about the Compassion Packs. Another hands-on ministry, MedCarePaks, was already in full swing; however, the contents were costly for small churches.
Over the years, requests for help from the Global NMI Office increased as a result of disasters around the world. Practical items were needed, providing immediate help when nothing was available to those in crisis.
NCM and NMI began discussions regarding an adaptation of the MedCarePaks. Nina was reminded of Lois’s “Compassion Packs.” The change to Crisis Care Kits was proposed to the Global NMI Council, explaining that CCKs would be less expensive to gather, more versatile, and have a longer shelf-life than the MedCarePaks. The Council voted to make the change immediately.
Nina Gunter wrote at that time, “I am thrilled by the new aspect of the Care Kits. The MedCarePaks provided a great beginning for providing relief around the world. Care Kits will allow wider participation among all ages in a local church and will especially allow small churches to participate effortlessly.”
Since 2000, the two ministries have worked together, with NCM exploring needed items for the inventory and NMI promoting Crisis Care Kits and distributing the inventory lists and instructions to districts.
In the past couple of years our Nazarene Disaster Response Team, under the direction of Georgia’s NDRT director, Rev. Kevin Thomas, CCK’s have been distributed within our SE region. So not only do we minister around the world, your CCK’s have helped those right here at home.
** Updated information – if we are delivering the CCK’s, you do not have to tape the banana boxes. But make sure you put the extra paper in the bottom of the box and on the top of the kits inside the box.
Also make sure you use both the top and bottom of the banana box, if not it will weaken the stack and collapse in shipping.
Check out the pictures on the Georgia district NMI facebook page.
And here are additional links about CCK’s.
https://www.ncm.org/search?q=crisis%20care%20kits
We deliver the CCK and SPP boxes to Fawn Grove Compassion Center, who then stores them until there is a need.
http://www.fawngrovecompassioncenter.org/Pages/About-Us.aspx
https://www.facebook.com/FawnGroveCompassionCenter/A church can mail or ship their boxes to Fawn Grove Compassion Center where they are stored until a disaster hits at which time FGCC would then ship them to that area. Georgia did it this way for a long time but it is very costly because of the weight of the boxes.
Now we collect the boxes at the NMI convention and take them directly to Fawn Grove. $20.00 per CCK box and $18.00 per SPP box is collected.
We send $12.00 per CCK box and $10.00 per SPP box of that money to the General Treasurer giving the church that donated credit.
And then the General Treasurer sends that money to Fawn Grove.
We use the additional $8.00 per box to rent a truck and pay for the gas and expenses to drive them to Fawn Grove.
Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus and participating in this much needed ministry
Blessings,
Debbie Moody , Georgia District NMI President
To mobilize the church in mission through praying, disciplining, giving and educating!