Dear Sisters of the Gig Harbor Stake,
June can be an exciting month for many of us with school
ending, children graduating, and many family gatherings occurring to celebrate
the start of summer. Likewise, there are lots of exciting things happening in
the Stake that I am happy to report to you, especially concerning some changes
that are being made in relation to our Humanitarian Program.
When our Stake was first organized, we didn’t have an
official program in place for humanitarian service and we were truly blessed
when Sister Rae Ann Merrill was called to set it up. At that time she was being
given some direction from Salt Lake about things needed for the Church’s
Welfare system and information about drives that were being done for Deseret
Industries. Now however, the Church would like us to concentrate more on
helping our neighbors in our local communities and have discontinued these D.I.
Drives.
With that being said, the Stake has likewise changed its
direction. The Humanitarian Program instead will be carried out on the ward
level under the direction of the Bishop and Relief Society Presidency and will
not be headed by the Stake. We are very grateful
for Sister Merrill for running this program so beautifully and training all of
those involved so well. Because of this
new direction, she has been released and we in the Stake Relief Society Presidency
want to thank her for all of her years of service.
As a Presidency we are here to support your efforts and help
give direction. My responsibility as Second Counselor is to answer any
questions you may have regarding humanitarian service and how it all works on
the ward level. If I don’t have the answers you need I will do my best to find them
and get back to you promptly. This is an exciting time
for us as we stretch ourselves in making a difference in our communities through
the service we are so happy to provide.
Warm regards,
Kandice Carnahan
The following newspaper article highlights humanitarian work being done by sisters in the Minter Creek and Key Center Wards! Great job, sisters.