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Dear Christian friends,

"We are people of the cross, resurrection people, people of hope and new
life."  I often say these words as I speak with disaster survivors, because
from the depth of my being I believe these words are true.

These past two days -- May 20 and 21 -- Edgar Trexler (THE LUTHERAN
editor), Roger Livdahl (World Hunger Appeal), and I accompanied Bishop H.
Geroge Anderson on four of his six pastoral visits to our sisters and
brothers on both the Minnesota and North Dakota sides of the Red River.

"Where are we now, this week?" Bishop Anderson asked pastors and spouses,
members and flood victims in Fargo and Breckenridge, in Ada and Grand
Forks, in Devils Lake and Mayville.  He heard of people coming back into
flooded homes after six weeks; of worship services being held in wet and
muddy facilities; of condemned houses; of exhausted, frustrated, weary
people; of areas without electricity or water; of increased funerals and
difficulty in preaching on Sundays.  But as the stories were told -- one
after another of hardship and heartache -- there was a balance of hope and
recovery.  Bishop Anderson also heard of Luther Seminary students bringing
vitality and new life as they visited the elderly; of financial assistance
from unknown congregations far away; of the healing presence and new energy
of cleanup volunteers; of getting up and moving forward to a "new norm" of
life, to new possibilities of service; of camping scholarships and special
ministries to the youth.  We people of the cross, we resurrection people,
are people of hope, of new life.

A pastor gave me some photos of his church.  This white rural church had
been standing in water for weeks, but now was drying out and being used
again.  As we traveled with Bishop Rick Foss and Bishop Arlen Hermodson, we
toured the soggy Oak Grove Lutheran High School facilities, met in damp
Breckenridge Church, visited a Lutheran family hauling out soaked
wallboard, and walked with hard hats and goggles through five levels of
muddy United Lutheran Church.  Cleanup has begun in Minnesota, and North
and South Dakota, and volunteers are needed now as relief efforts get into
full swing.  We are resurrection people, people of hope and new life.

Jim and Sherryl Weisenberger showed us their house near the river in Grand
Forks.  The floodwaters had covered it totally and twisted it off its
foundation.  As we looked inside, we saw that everything was covered from
floor to ceiling with smelly mushy mud.  In this neighborhood, Lincoln
Park, over 200 houses will be bulldozed, including their house.  Sherryl
said the one article she desperately tried to recover from the mud was a
small cross necklace her grandfather had given to her - a cross with the
words of the Lord's Prayer inscribed on the center.  They were
unsuccessful, and decided to leave.  As they were heading out the door,
they looked down and there it was, stuck onto her sister's shoe.  Sherryl
was wearing that cross as we spoke, that symbol of her grandfather's love,
of God's love, of her faith.

We are people of the cross, resurrection people, people of hope and new
life.  As our brothers and sisters in Minnesota and in North and South
Dakota enter into the long months of cleaning up and rebuilding houses, or
restoring lives and worship spaces, let us be part of their hope, their new
life.  You can help by

 > your faithful and regular prayers of support
 > your contributions to

        ELCA Domestic Disaster Response
        PO Box 71764
        Chicago, IL 60694

 > your volunteering to cleanup and rebuild, by calling:

NORTH DAKOTA:   Deanna Ruggiero 1-888-356-6343  (a toll-free number)
MINNESOTA:   in Breckenridge     - Jan Perry          218-643-1840
             in East Grand Forks - Rev. Jorgen Vaage  218-773-2860
             in Moorhead         - Aimee Anderson     218-236-0368
SOUTH DAKOTA:   Ray Engh        1-605-373-4224

May God add blessings, strength, and grace to all the people of the cross,
God's resurrection people, as together we live out hope and participate in
new life.

Yours in Christ,
Gil Furst

GILBERT B. FURST (written on Thu, May 22, 1997, at 11:25 pm)
Associate Director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response
Internet address: [log in to unmask]
For more information, click on our web site:  www.elca.org/dcs/disaster