We are so lucky to have Sister Kira Feik from the Monrovia Ward presenting this year at our Women's Conference. She is very modest in her bio which follows, but we know that you will enjoy her presentation. Her class is entitled "I Pray He'll Use Us" How can we provide Hope for a brighter future for those in need through service. Where can we serve and how can we serve? Becoming individual humanitarian centers. Get to know Kira. "I grew up in South Weber, UT with my parents and sister. Once I turned 18, I set out to explore what this country had to offer. I played Division I volleyball at Stetson University in DeLand, FL, and majored in Marine and Aquatic Biology. Upon graduating, I made my way back to Utah and helped open up what is now known as The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, UT. I met my husband Dylan on a blind date and since then we have been on some wild adventures. We have lived in 5 states and 9 cities due to schooling and Dylan’s work. We have met many people along the way who we consider family! We bought our first ever home here in Monrovia, where we want to try and settle down and raise our three children (9,6, and 3). I am a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. I have been known to help neighbors and church sisters with their plumbing, cars, painting, electrical, yard work, furniture restoration…etc. I was a daddy’s girl who followed my master plumber dad around whenever I could! I come from a long line of church members and I love to learn about my ancestors. I have a strong testimony of the church and am so thankful for its role in my life! I have spent several years teaching in the Young Women’s program, but find myself currently teaching in Relief Society and it feels like coming home being with my sisters in the gospel. "
I Pray He’ll Use Us- Kira Feik
As Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have covenanted with the
Lord to care for the poor. The poor in heart, the poor in spirit, the physically poor and the
mentally poor. We will start off with a scripture from the days of Alma.
Alma 1:30
“And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or
that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and
they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young,
both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no
respect to persons as to those who stood in need.” When thinking about how I could bring a unique perspective to Women’s Conference, I look back on the unique experiences and situations my family has been in because of my husband's job in local government. I want to start with a touchy subject that is hard to address when we are in the middle of a crisis.
So I hope the Spirit will touch and move you as I share some insight of a disaster response I
have experienced first hand. When a disaster strikes, many well-meaning people across our
country start to donate. What they donate turns out to be “the second disaster”.
Juanita Rilling, former director of the Center for International Disaster Information said
“Generally after a disaster, people with loving intentions donate things that cannot be used in a
disaster response, and in fact may actually be harmful and they have no idea that they're doing
it."
1998-Hurricane Mitch in Honduras
A supply plane could not land on the runway, because of boxes and bales of unwanted
clothing donations (single shoes, bales of winter coats, prom dresses, wigs) (Photo 1)
2004- Indian Ocean Tsunami
A beach was piled with used clothing. There was no time for disaster workers to sort and
clean old clothes. They rotted on the beach and became toxic. Local officials poured
gasoline on them, set them on fire, and pushed it all out to sea. (Photo 2)
2012- Newtown, Connecticut- Gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a school. Fill in the
blank. Over 67,000 _______ ended up at the city? Take a guess. The answer is Teddy bears!
Teddy bears - $5 teddy bear +$15 to ship= 1.34 million dollars donated in teddy bears.
(Photo 3)
The city had to purchase a warehouse to hold all the teddy bears.
A worker for the city, Chris Kelsey, said “I think a lot of the stuff that came into the warehouse
was more for the people that sent it, than it was for the people in Newtown. At least, that’s the
way it felt in the end.”
In 2017 my family was in the Tubbs fire in Sonoma and Napa county that destroyed more than
5,600 homes and killed 22 people in less than 12 hours during the night. Thousands of families
were left homeless. The donations were overwhelming. What did we need?
Hotel rooms, gas, storage space, trailers and motorhomes, gift cards for food and clothing.
When taking my youngest son to see his pediatrician two months after the fires, Dr Zarte and I
started talking about how my kids were doing having been through the fires. What I didn’t
realize was that Dr Zarate fled in the night too and lost everything she owned as the fires burnt
down her home. We were both hugging and crying as we recalled that night. She was
obviously in so much pain from the event. She then apologized for the way she looked. She
said “these grubby clothes that don’t fit were what was given to us. I will make it do for now” A
couple of weeks after that she stepped away from the profession and she didn’t return for the
two years we continued to go there.
A church member was volunteering at a local VA office and pleaded for members to come take
the donations that they had. They were losing money trying to store the picked over clothing
and items.
2020-Bobcat Fire
No buildings were destroyed and there were no fatalities in our local fire. During a pandemic
and civil unrest, an already exhausted emergency response team responded day and night for
over a week to keep us safe.
There was an overwhelming number of people dropping off food. Dylan assured me that they
were being handsomely fed by organizations who worked with the coordinators. Firemen were
exhausted and trying to sleep at the stations while answering the fire station door with a friendly
and thankful demeanor for well meaning citizens dropping off homemade goodies, dinners and
water. (during a pandemic where sharing food made by strangers was probably not advised)
One more mind blowing example for you:This is about 100,000 liters of bottled drinking water. It is enough to provide drinking water for
40,000 people (about the population of Monrovia) for one day. This water was shipped from the
US to South Africa and cost about $300,000. Relief organizations with portable water
purification units can produce the same 100,000 liters of water for about $300. It is 1000 x more
expensive to ship our water to another location.
How can we feed our sheep?
Think about whether we want to give our leftovers, Or give our best?
This is where you and I can flip the narrative.
This past conference Via Sekahema gave a talk entitled “A House of Sequential Order.” He says
“Consider the following statements we’ve heard most of our lives: “First things first” or “Feed
them milk before meat.” How about “We have to walk before we run”? Each of these axioms
describes something that is sequential. Miracles operate according to sequential order.
Miracles occur when we first exercise faith. “Faith precedes the miracle.”
The Church is a well oiled machine when it comes to giving and service. The Church’s
organization that leads its followers is called Latter-Day Saint Charities. It currently consists of
nine initiatives: food security, clean water, community projects, emergency response,
immunizations, maternal and newborn care, refugee and immigrant services, vision care, and
wheelchairs. Each initiative is led by project managers with experience specific to their field.
Within these initiatives, most Latter-day Saint Charities projects are carried out by trusted
partners as well as welfare and self-reliance missionaries.
Sister Sharon Eubank, First Counselor of the Relief Society General Presidency is also the
Director of Latter-Day Saint Charities. To me she is the Sensai, the coach, the top dog and a
living matriarch of service.
In this last general conference, she gave a Humanitarian Report under President Nelson’s
direction. She spoke on the church's effort on South African Covid relief, Afghan relief at
Ramstein, Haitian earthquake relief and German flood relief. When looking at a map of the
World on Latterdaysaintcharities.org you can see all the effort and relief that is going on at this
moment.
A very small percent of us are able to personally contribute to these specific reliefs. And that's
the way it is supposed to be. This is the Lord's church and he knows exactly how the relief
efforts need to take place. That is not our direction or calling. Our covenant and calling is to
care for those with all different types of needs.
The church launched a new App and Website in 2015 called “Just Serve”. The Just Serve
Project team lead described it as this: “Just Serve is a tool that allows members and other
service-minded individuals to easily identify projects where they can come together in
improving the communities they call their home,”
Have you ever checked it out? There are a number of opportunities that can suit your
capabilities and preferences. Not good in front of people... become a penpal to a
member of a retirement home. Not good with people at all...they have something for
you too! You can shuttle around food supplies to various food pantries. Within a 25
mile radius from here, there are 399 current opportunities needing all kinds of service-
from accounting services, music, pregnancy support to writing letters. There is
something for everyone there. This is not a long term commitment, just a worthy cause
when you get that feeling that you have to do something!
Sister Eubanks shares “I have a front row seat to witness the impact of life-saving food, clothing,
and labor donated by members of the Church in an emergency, but if you ask me what I have
seen that accomplishes the most lasting good, it is you. You are the gift. You yourself are the
gift. It is not the clothing, the hygiene kits, the school desks, or the wells. It is you. And you don’t
have to be in a perfect state yourself to be doing it.”
“Is there anyone who doesn’t participate in society for some reason? Somebody who is on the
periphery? Somebody who—because of language, background, disability, religion, family status,
life choices, or anything else—is not fully participating within the circle? And can we think of
them as brothers and sisters? Can we serve them? ...
“If we change our perspective so that caring for the poor and the needy is less about giving stuff
away and more about filling the hunger for human contact, providing meaningful conversation,
and creating rich and positive relationships, then the Lord can send us someplace. ... There are
always humanitarian places that we can’t yet reach. But there are plenty that we can reach. ...
“And remember that, in the same way as the Savior, you yourself are one of the best gifts that
you can give to other people in need”
I have handed out a list of “16 Things You Can Do to Be a Humanitarian” by Sister Eubanks.
Please take a moment and put a tear in the paper next to the ones that you are most
comfortable doing.
Now that you see the ones you're most comfortable with, dig a little deeper and push yourself to
fill your personal humanitarian centers with something you aren’t used to! Think long-term
instead of short-term. The next time your heart strings are tugged, how can you share what’s in
your personal humanitarian center? If you learn of a dear friend’s passing, call a friend who
might be lonely. Next time you see suffering on the tv that is far away, prepare yourself or your
community for difficult events that might occur in the future. If different views are being fought
over, find a way to show love to someone who is different from you.
Sister Eubanks concludes by repeating the question Jesus asked His Apostle Simon Peter: “Do
you love me?” The essence of the gospel is contained in how we answer that question for
ourselves and “feed [His] sheep.” When you think about service, think about how you want to
feed those sheep.
Do you want to feed them leftovers and garbage or do you want to give the best you have to
give? (Photo 5 and 6)
I pray that when that time comes and our hearts are torn from what we see around us, we first
ask how we can truly help. How can I make a lasting impact? Pray that you can be his
representative and answer someone else's prayer. Pray to know where to go and what to do.
Follow the greatest example of our savior and choose to love. I promise with a prayer and a
heart full of love, you will be the saving grace to someone else in their time of need.
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