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Dear friends in Christ,
Last week, before returning from Puerto Rico to Fargo with a group of
volunteers, Vicki Schmidt asked them to reflect on their experience. In
her note to me on Tuesday, she wrote, "I asked what they would tell someone
about this experience who is thinking about coming to volunteer:
overwhelmingly the response was GO and DO IT! You will meet new friends,
you need to be flexible... be patient, stay at least two weeks, and it is
an experience you carry with you the rest of your life! (The above are all
quoted from the notes we took)."
This evening Johanna Olson (ELCA Assistant for Domestic Disaster Response)
and I returned from several days in Puerto Rico. We met with our P.R.
staff and with Bishop Francisco Sosa (Caribbean Synod), we went on site and
visited some of the communities and people with whom we are working, and we
talked and ate with a group of forty volunteers.
This trip was an inspiration for me. The volunteers came from Wisconsin,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. I watched
them work on rooftops in Toa Baja. I saw them talk tenderly with a woman
whose house still sustains major damage. We drove through Candalaria,
where volunteers did major debris removal (including removal of 17 ruined
automobiles). I spoke with them - ELCA and LC-MS Lutherans - after they
had worked a long and sweaty day, and they described how their lives were
being changed by this work, how their faith was being strengthened, how
fulfilled they felt by helping others.
Lutheran Disaster Response, a cooperative ministry of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, has been
working six months now in Puerto Rico, following island-wide destruction
from Hurricane Georges. To date nearly 400 volunteers have come to help.
So far eighty-eight minor and major repairs have been made to houses. Over
1,500 properties have had debris removed. Fourteen church properties are
scheduled for or have received repairs. Volunteers are signed up through
August. "Satellite" crews have worked and are scheduled to work on the west
coast in Mayaguez. The poorest of the poor and the neediest of the needy
are our focus.
On this trip I have again seen God's people reaching out to others with the
same love that God touched their lives in Jesus Christ. How can you help?
-- In your personal and congregational prayers, remember those whose lives
have been filled with loss by Hurricane Georges
-- Your cash contributions are crucial to sustain a long-term response,
which we hope to continue through August. We are thankful for the Lutheran
Brotherhood field management staff who pledged $50,000 for this response.
So far our expenses have far exceeded our income.
Please send your contributions to:
ELCA DOMESTIC Disaster Response - "Hurricanes"
PO Box 71764
Chicago, Illinois 60694-1764
Credit card gift line: 1-800-638-3522
LC-MS World Relief
P.O. Box 66861
St. Louis, MO 63166-9810
Credit card gift line: 1-888-930-4438
Thanks to all who are praying, to all who are contributing, to all who are
volunteering. These are indeed experiences you carry with you the rest of
your life!
In Christ,
Gil Furst
GILBERT B. FURST (written on Sat, Mar 27, 1999, at 12:31 am)
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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