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Dear Christian friends,
The familiar Thanksgiving hymn, "Now Thank We All Our God," was written by
Martin Rinkart when Germany was reeling from the Thirty Years War.
Surrounded by homelessness and hunger, death and destruction, Rinkart wrote
a hymn that saw God's presence in the midst of sorrow and hopelessness.
I just returned tonight from three days in Puerto Rico, where, during my
visit, I spoke with Margarita, a woman in her seventies. This week a group
of Lutheran Disaster Response volunteers have been working in her home,
tarping her roof, removing molding clothes and furniture, washing and
disinfecting muddy floors. "I will get some sleep tonight," she told me,
"I feel safe now." The volunteers - from Vermont and California, North
Carolina and Idaho - also replaced her broken door, and, for the first time
in six weeks, she would sleep securely.
As we approach Thanksgiving Day, I think about the vast number of people
touched by terrible disasters this year. As I ponder destroyed houses,
affected communities, devastated islands, decimated countries, I also
reflect on the words of Martin Rinkart's hymn. For as I stood this year
from time to time and place to place with people affected by wind and
floods, hurricanes and tornadoes -I have also been deeply aware of God's
presence, even in the troubled days.
On behalf of countless disaster survivors, I give thanks for so much this
year:
* for the continuing and steady recovery work in the upper Midwest, still
being done by Synods and Districts, agencies, LDR staff, and volunteers;
* for outpouring of prayers, expressions of love, and financial support by
countless individuals and congregations;
* for on-going work, long after our "official" disaster response ends, in
such diverse states as Alabama and Ohio, California and Iowa, Michigan and
North Carolina, in South Dakota, Texas, and Florida;
* for hundreds of volunteers who show their faith active in love by
travelling to unknown places to help unknown people in the name of Jesus
Christ;
* for the magnificent help of staff and colleagues in different units of
the church, for the members of our "Lutheran Coalition" and other faith
groups who offer assistance and help maintain a vision;
* for volunteers who came from four different states to Puerto Rico this
Thanksgiving week, and enabled an elderly widow to feel safe and sleep
soundly in a clean home tonight.
For me, Disaster Response ministries truly are the body of Christ rolling
up sleeves, getting sore backs and dirty hands, bringing a word of
resurrection hope, living the presence of Gospel love. Thank you for your
interest, for your prayers, for your support, for your presence, for your
ministry.
"Oh, may this bounteous God Through all our life be near us,
With every joyful hearts And blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in his grace, And guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all harm In this world and the next."
Yours in Christ,
Gil Furst
GILBERT B. FURST (written on Tue, Nov 24, 1998, at 8:53 pm)
Director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response (Division for Church in Society),
Lutheran Disaster Response (A cooperative ministry of the ELCA and LCMS)
8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago 60631 PHONE: 773-380-2822 FAX: 773-380-2493
Visit our website: www.elca.org/dcs/disaster
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