Letters to the editor

We can help those in need by assembling health kits
A few months ago, several other ladies and I—all of whom had developed a commitment to each other during our Disciple Bible Study at First UMC, Alpharetta, Ga.—decided that when we meet monthly, we will bring health kits for the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
UMCOR has recently asked that $1 be included for each kit to help pay for transportation. Each of us contributes $1 per kit for postage from Georgia to the UMCOR Depot in Baldwin, La. 
For those who aren’t familiar with UMCOR, it is a unit of the General Board of Global Ministries. You can get more information on it at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/kits. cfm and/or www.sagerbrown.org. 
UMCOR is so efficient in delivering disaster relief that it advises the U.S. government on disaster relief. 
We feel that because the health kit is the first thing that UMCOR gives to disaster victims, it is a very important mission opportunity that almost anyone can afford to do from their homes.
We don’t have to travel to another country. UMCOR distributed 146,637 health kits in 2004 in this country and other countries, so you can see that the need is great.
I buy my items for the health kits at Dollar General, and one kit’s contents cost me between $5 and $6.
It is very important that you strictly follow UMCOR’s instructions for putting the health kits together. We don’t want one disaster victim to receive something different from another one.
Perhaps you’re part of a group that meets regularly. Perhaps the Lord is calling you, too, to help his people in need receive UMCOR health kits. 
Jo Ann Leifeste
Cumming, Ga.

Thanks for good column about faith by George Ricker
George Ricker has written an enlightening article (“We shouldn’t let disasters undermine our faith in God,” Feb. 25). Thank you for it.
On this same topic, I suggest people read Our Final Hour by Martin Rees, Royal Society professor at Cambridge University and England’s astronomer royal. He writes:
“I think the odds are no better than 50-50 that our present civilization on earth will survive to the end of the present century. … What happens here on earth in this century … could be an earth … filled with nothing but base matter.”
We’ve lived with this threat since World War II. As years go by it could become worse—unless we do something about it. The quarrelling and fighting we do among ourselves get us nowhere.
James J. Billings
Las Cruces, N.M.