Recently, I heard the Christmas standard, "Little Drummer Boy." I remember loving this song as a little girl because I didn't have much I could have given Jesus, but I loved it that the drummer boy gave him what he had, his drumming. Pretty sappy, but true.
This year when I heard the song, another section in the verse about the wise men jumped out at me. "The Child, the child shivering in the night. Let us bring him silver and gold." I listened to this in the context of knowing that the Federal Government has slashed the Heating Fuel Assistance to our nation's poor, and there are or will be many children shivering in the night.
We all know that the Wise Men brought their silver and gold because they believed this child to be someone special. But hearing the line isolated of that meaning said there is a child shivering in the night, let us respond.
The New England Congressional Delegation is active in trying to restore level funding to the Fuel Assistance Program, but we can raise our voice in their support when we contact your Congressman and Senator. I have been told that it is important to voice our concern to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid because our local representatives understand already how important this funding is.
Email or phone calls are the way to go because snail mail takes up to a month to get through security in Washington. Here are the contact information for each of them (email is now done exclusively through their web sites.
What they need to hear is that it is cold up here in New Hampshire and that there are people who need help with their heating. I would like to see us restore at least enough funding to serve the people who were served last year.
Every day some of our neighbors are shivering in the night and hungry in the day. We respond generously to those needs, but some of the needs are bigger than our individual responses, and that is what we need our government to help with. Thanks for your caring.
-Reverend Gayle Murphy
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