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Dickinson UMC Sends Healing Gift to Kosovo Victims
By the Rev. Kevin Kloster
Posted: April 1999 
When folks in Dickinson learned about the enormous burden on resources and people caused by Albanians fleeing Kosovo, they wanted to help.
Pastor Kevin Kloster turned to the General Board of Global Ministries page on the Internet to discover ways of being in mission to the refugees. What he found was that there was a shortage of medical supplies. Mission Boxes were being put together to help suffering and sick people. When Pastor Kevin took this information to the mission committee of the Dickinson UMC, they were excited and enthusiastic about helping.
The mission chairperson Betty Jo Todd made some phone calls to UMCOR and then pulled her committee together. They went to work raising the money for each Medicine Box® plus the needed supplies. In one month six Medicine Boxes were put together. Each Medicine Box contains two categories of products: products collected by the church and products purchased through church donations.
Each Medicine Box put together by the church must also include $375 for the purchase of these prescription supplies through Interchurch Medical Assistance, Inc. (I.M.A). [Contact UMCOR for specific directions.]
One Medicine Box will enable a hospital or clinic to respond to common illnesses in a population of 1000 persons for a three-month period or to a special medical emergency need. Through the leadership of a very active and committed mission committee, the Dickinson UMC raised enough money and supplies to care for the medical needs of 6000 people over the course of three months. In addition to the six Medicine Boxes sent to refugee camps, nearly $1000 was contributed directly to the Kosovo Emergency.
Source: the Dakotas Connection, July 1999. Cost of Medicine Box updated 2002.