Pastor’s postcard hobby becomes ministry for disaster relief

A UMNS photo by Suzy Keenan The Rev. Charlene Gaspar sells postcards on eBay and uses the profits for church ministry.

By Suzy Keenan*

PHILADELPHIA (UMNS) — An area pastor is turning her passion for postcards into a way to help the survivors of the tsunami disaster in South Asia.

The Rev. Charlene Gaspar, pastor of Gladwyne United Methodist Church in a suburb of Philadelphia, has been collecting postcards since she was 11 years old. For the past three years, she has been auctioning postcards from her extensive collection, numbering in the tens of thousands, with the proceeds going toward the ministry of her church.

Often she has raised $250 per month through eBay auctions, with recent sales as high as $700 in one month.

Gaspar saw the tsunami disaster as a "horrific situation, producing a desperate need," and has been moved to direct the proceeds from her auctions to the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

"UMCOR has been working hard for disaster relief. My congregation has always been a congregation that has wholeheartedly given its 100 percent share of connectional giving and has gone the extra mile for special offerings," she said. "My congregation gives from the heart, and they will celebrate this donation to UMCOR with me."

"Five hundred dollars per month would be easy, but I would like to raise $1,000 per month," Gaspar said. "If I wake up in the middle of the night, I go see how my sales are doing. My husband, Ruben, makes a trip nearly every day to the post office before going off to work."

A UMNS photo by Suzy Keenan The Rev. Charlene Gaspar has been collecting postcards since she was 11 years old.

Known as "postcardpastor" on eBay, Gaspar has sold postcards to customers all over the world. While giving the name of her church on each auction, she also sees her auctions as reaching out in the name of Christ. People from different continents have e-mailed her with such questions as, "Are you really a pastor?" and "I didn’t know women could be pastors."

Several customers and even non-customers have sent donations, sometimes including an additional amount above their postcard purchase as a donation. "People have sent money for the church, sending me $10 on a sale of $3.50, and ask me to put the rest in the plate," she said.

"Ebay is a global market, and so it’s amazing what people will buy. I have sold postcards to people from Israel, all over Europe, Africa, Japan, South America, Thailand and Hong Kong."

Gaspar has received more than 8,000 positive feedbacks (indicating customer satisfaction) from more than 4,251 customers since March 1999. She sells just about anything in terms of postcards, new or old, even if in ragged and horrible condition, as those are purchased for scrap booking. Customers like local or global cards, dogs, cats, floral and art cards, old documents, stamps and first day covers.

"Your mission field is anywhere you make it," Gaspar mused.

While in nursing school in her early 20s, she had wanted to be a missionary in the United States, but changed those plans when she met her future husband, Ruben, while both were attending Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia. As a registered nurse for 28 years, Gaspar took care of people who are now members of her church, viewing this as having nurtured their bodies and their souls. Now, with her own walking disability, she finds members at Gladwyne United Methodist Church nurturing her.

In order to accommodate Gaspar’s walking disability, Gladwyne converted its downstairs room into a multipurpose room and sanctuary, to make it accessible.

The upstairs, formerly the sanctuary, houses a home schooling project for 33 children from kindergarten to grade 12, of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths. On Sundays, the church building also hosts a new church start, a non-denominational Pilipino congregation.

Gladwyne is a small, struggling congregation in a tiny village that used to be a mill town, and is now surrounded by multimillion-dollar mansions inhabited by some of Philadelphia’s richest and most famous celebrities.

"Rather than feel ‘helpless’ in light of these tsunami events, this is one way we can come together and provide extra dollars to UMCOR relief in South Asia," Gaspar said of her postcard ministry.

She welcomes donations of postcards of any sort, in any condition. They can be sent to her at 317 Iven Ave., St. Davids, PA 19087. She can be contacted by e-mail at charlenegaspar@comcast.net. Her postcards can be found at www.ebay.com.

A hundred percent of all donations to UMCOR go to emergency relief around the world. As on Jan. 10, contributions to UMCOR for tsunami relief reached $2 million, a figure that incorporates online giving and telephone credit card donations but only part of the boxes of checks received so far.

The Internal Revenue Service will allow donors to decide whether to apply their tsunami relief contributions to the 2004 or 2005 tax years, as long as the gift designated for 2004 is made by Jan. 31. UMCOR is exempt from tax under the Internal Revenue Code and qualifies for the maximum charitable contribution deduction by donors.

More information about UMCOR’s ministries is available at www.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/. Donations can be placed in local church offering plates or sent to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Donations by credit card can be made at (800) 554-8583 or by going online to www.methodistrelief.org.

Contributions specifically for tsunami disaster relief should be designated for UMCOR Advance #274305, "South Asia Emergency."

*Keenan is director of communications for the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference of the United Methodist Church.

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