Helping the Poor and Needy

April's visiting teaching message was different than it's been in a while. At the end of last year, I felt like we were talking about the benefits of membership in the Relief Society ad nauseum. This year, we've focused on personal testimony, faith, and other individually meaningful aspects of spiritual development. This message, though, was about helping the poor and needy. I glanced at the title and was excited about it. Finally, something about reaching outside my social and church circles, a focus on a major problem in the world.

So, my partner and I went visiting teaching last week. We sat outside on a beautiful spring day--spring is finally here!--and talked with a new sister in our ward who just gave birth to her first child. My partner is a wonderful woman and I see her quite a bit. She lives near me and we often trade kids back and forth. She is always cheerful, despite the demands of a large family.

She started the lesson by recounting a story found in April's New Era. The author writes of her patriarchal blessing, which stated "You may help the needy with your time, effort, and means.” This young teen-ager feels drawn to help the poor in her area, but her first two efforts are unsuccesful. She goes home, depressed. How can she fulfill her calling as described in her blessing? How can she help the needy? She walks into her home, and her younger brother is crying, upset from being teased at school. The words from her patriarchal blessing come back to her, and she concludes that "the poor are just as likely to be in your home as on the streets." My partner then talked about how that message really resonated for her. With 5 young children, she has little time to do other things. I understand this, and can empathize with her. "To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

The deeper implications, though, of the New Era article bother me. If I equate the poor and needy only with my family, then I am not forced to personally confront the poor and needy in the streets and in my community. I have given up my responsibility to help them. I am not required to look beyond my comfort zone to those who may be in need.

On another level, I was upset by this thought. Here is another way that my children can prevent me from having an impact on the world at large. I don't want my influence to be felt only within the walls of my home, no matter how important that work may be. I want to reach beyond my family to help others.

I've been thinking about this all week. I've been wondering what kind of contribution I can make, where I can use my talents, and how I can make a difference. Later, after I was thinking about this experience again, I had a flash of inspiration. I'm the enrichment leader in my ward. The flexible enrichment groups seem like the perfect vehicle to make a regular committment to a local non-profit organization. As beneficial as tying quilts and putting together hygeine kits are, there is something particularly valuable about meeting people face-to-face who need our help, as Chole so eloquently described.

Have you been in wards that have successful at working with a non-profit? What seems to work? What hasn't worked? And what kinds of services--soup kitchen, women's shelter?? Or have you seen a particularly effective one-time service project performed in a ward? And what about in your own lives? Has there been a time when you've been able to devote energy to a cause?