March 2011 RMD Mission Grant Devotion
A Mite Box Conversation
Written by Anita Werner
RMD Mission Grants Committee Member
Characters in order of appearance:
Q = Quetta Quarter
P = Penny
M = Mite Box
G = George - Dollar Bill
Plunk!
Q: Well hello everybody! My it is kinda dark in here! My name is Quetta Quarter who are you?
P: I’m Penny, nice to meet you. And this is Nick Nickel and Dina Dime. You’ve landed in Lena Lutheran’s mite box.
Q: What is a mite box? I might just want to leave!
P: From what I’ve heard a mite box is a place where Lutheran women place their spare change, not sure what they do with it; I’ve been in here about a month and the place is really starting to fill up.
Q: Why is it that we coins always end up in dark places? My last residence was in a jean pocket and before that I was in the bottom of somebody’s purse forever.
P: I know what you mean, I rode around in the coin holder in a car for months and months…and I get car sick! Before that I was stuck in between the cushions on somebody’s sofa.
Q: Too bad we couldn’t land in a nice cool pond where the sunlight could sparkle down on us. I met a quarter once who told me he had been in a pond and they cleaned it out periodically and used the coins to help people through some charity. It would be nice to know that we were making a difference for someone instead of stuck in this dark and stuffy old cardboard box.
M: Hey, who you calling dark and stuffy and old? I might be a bit frayed around the edges but I still get out once a month when Lena takes me to her LWML meeting.
P: What is a Lah-wom-el meeting?
M: No silly penny, L W M L…it stands for Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. It is some ladies group at Lena’s church. They meet once a month and Lena takes me along. She empties me into a bigger mite box and then brings me home to fill me up again.
Q: What do they do with all the coins?
M: From what I’ve heard at the meetings they gather up the coins and take them to the bank to put in their bank account. Then the money goes to missions.
P: What’s a mission?
M: Well, the ladies vote every so often on where to spend their coins to help people through various projects that bring the love of Jesus to others here in America and around the world. For example, right now they are gathering coins to help missionaries such as the Lutheran Bible Translators set up their households in far off places. They are also supporting the new Outreach Center for the Lutheran Blind Mission in Ft. Collins, CO. These are just two of the twelve mission grants the Rocky Mountain District of the LWML is gathering mite money for.
Q: Wow! So we are going to do some good for others, like the coins in the sparkly pond!
M: That’s right! Near as I can tell all the coins the Lutheran ladies put in their mite boxes help people all over the place to learn about Jesus.
Swoosh!
G: Hey make way; scoot over you coins…big George is here!
M: Welcome George! We don’t often get dollar bills in here but you are more than welcome!
G: What is this place anyway?
Q: Come with me, George-I’ll fill you in about mite boxes and how mighty we can be!
M: That’s right, I’m always mighty proud when I’m really full and Lena empties me out and we start again to gather up coins and bills to help with the LWML mission projects. Seeing as how the LWML’s color is purple it would sure be nice to see a few Abe’s join us now and then…they have that pretty purple five on them and would really coordinate nicely with my box colors.
Fade to black…
Announcer: Have you “fed” your mite box lately? The RMD LWML has twelve mission projects to fund in this biennium (2010-2012) for a total of $75,000. To date we have paid $________ which means we have a long way to go to reach our goal. Feed you might box generously and feed it often!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us to remember to pray for the mission grants for the 2010-2012 Biennium and to feed our mite boxes generously and often. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
