One Great Hour of Sharing 2024

One Great Hour of Sharing® is one of four special mission offerings of the United Church of Christ. This Lenten Offering supports the disaster, refugee, and development ministries of the United Church of Christ within Love of Neighbor ministries.

ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING

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One Great Hour of Sharing 2024

One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) special mission offering of the United Church of Christ involves you in disaster, refugee/immigration, and development ministries throughout the world. When a disaster strikes or people are displaced or made refugees by violence or extreme poverty, you are part of the immediate response and of the long-term recovery.

Life on the Brink of Disaster

February 13, 2024 by by Emily Enders Odom

Gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing help Middle East Council of Churches restore hope and health to Syria’s most vulnerable

LOUISVILLE – Bernadette thought that she had seen the worst of it.

For well over a decade, she and her family had unflinchingly withstood Syria’s ever-worsening humanitarian and economic crisis, the country’s ongoing localized hostilities and its collapsing infrastructure.

But now — following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey in February 2023 — the longtime school supervisor’s own home began crumbling beneath her very feet.

“The building we live in had cracks, and in the apartment above us, five pillars had cracked,” she said. “In our apartment, there were cracks in the beams and columns and the wall.”

And yet, despite the significant damage to their home and the danger to their family, they stayed.

Although most of their neighbors had quickly left the unsafe apartment building to seek refuge with relatives, Bernadette’s family remained in their home because they had no choice. Not only did they have no other family to take them in, but they also simply couldn’t afford to pay the escalating rent costs elsewhere. Between her meager salary and her husband’s — even lower than hers — their combined income is barely sufficient to meet the family’s basic needs.

Whenever people are unable to secure basic needs, some families adopt negative coping mechanisms, such as reducing meals, resorting to child labor, or, as a last resort, many simply find a way to leave Syria,” he added. “What OGHS does, in cooperation with our partners, is continually seek to support the people of Syria. We have aided families like Bernadette’s, whose homes were damaged by the earthquake in Aleppo, working to ensure that they live in a stable building where their children can sleep safely.

You can help through your OGHS donation.

We will dedicate the offering on March 17th