So many needs . . .

The Light the World Giving Machine is one of the best ideas that I’ve seen in my lifetime:

Light the World Giving Machines Open at University Place in Orem

“‘Giving’ vending machine in Las Vegas racks in more than $140,000 before Thanksgiving”

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The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued this statement on refugees following recent media inquiries:

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are deeply committed to living the two great commandments to love God and love our neighbor. We feel tremendous joy in helping all of God’s children, no matter where they may live in this world.

It is therefore with great concern and compassion that we observe the plight of more than 70 million people around the world who have fled their homes seeking relief from violence, war, or religious persecution.

We encourage Church members and friends to respond appropriately and legally, to help create welcoming communities by volunteering their time, talents and friendship to individuals and families who are integrating into our societies.

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On the LighttheWorld suggestion calendar for today, Tuesday, 3 December 2019, the prompt is “Donate blood today. Your selfless service can save a life.”

I like this idea, and I would comply if I could.  However, I can’t.  Many years ago, while my wife and I were living south of Cairo, Egypt, I came down with a fairly serious case of hepatitis A.  Since then, I have been prohibited from giving blood.

I regret this, because giving blood is a relatively easy way to be of help to others, and because, unlike some, I never experienced any difficulties or problems in doing so.

However, when I was serving as the bishop of a young single adult ward adjacent to Utah Valley University several years ago, I still had the opportunity to participate in the stake blood drive.  I turned it into a good-natured competition, to see which ward in the stake would give more blood.  I joked about it in sacrament meetings, built it up, revved up the members of my ward, organized an effort to maximize donor turn-out, ranged about on the evening that the Red Cross came as a cheerleader and, where needed, as a builder-up of courage — and my ward won the competition every time.

That pleased me considerably, and compensated to some degree for the fact that I myself am barred from giving blood.

And by now you may have realized that I’m more or less doing the same thing with this post.  I can’t donate blood, but many of you can — and I hope that at least some of you will.