Title: ELCA Women's Offering Garners $200,000 ELCA NEWS SERVICE July 19, 1996 WOMEN'S OFFERING GARNERS $200,000 (80 lines) 96-17-052-LC MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- When worship closed the Third Triennial Convention for Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) here July 11-14, about 5,700 women had stretched, received new leadership and garnered $194,571.98. Jonathan C. Kalkwarf, Women of the ELCA director for finance and administration, says offerings were received throughout the convention and will continue to be sent in to the churchwide organization. He expects that figure to grow beyond $200,000. Fifty percent of all money received in offerings, will be used to support the ongoing ministries of the churchwide organization. The other 50 percent goes toward projects selected by the convention. Each of the following were selected by the delegates and will receive $10,000: Lutheran Social Services of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, for emergency assistance to Native Alaskan single mothers; Lutheran Social Ministry of the Southwest, Phoenix, for advocacy for at-risk children; American Indian Community Housing Organization, Duluth, Minn., for transitional housing for American Indian women and children; Lutheran Family and Children's Service, St. Louis, support for families and children and risk ; Lutheran Social Services, Des Moines, Iowa, help for young mothers; God's Pantry Food Bank, Lexington, Ky., food pantry; St. Peter's in the Bronx, N.Y., after-school program; Wilkinsburg Community Ministry, Pittsburgh, child care for low-income families; and Lutheran Ministries of Alabama, Huntsville, Ala., job skills training. In addition, the Learning Center for Street Children, Cusco, Peru, will receive $8,000. "If you desire to be more of a proclaimer of God's peace in your home, to your community, and to the world, say `Amen,'" the Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South Dakota Synod, preached during the closing worship service. "If you have never before shouted `Amen!' during a Lutheran worship service, say `Amen!'" DeGroot-Nesdahl talked about what it means to stretch. She recently returned from the Pine Ridge Reservation in Southwest South Dakota where she worshiped in a Lutheran congregation, in the Lakota language. "I wanted to sing, to somehow join these people, whom I did not know, but clearly shared the same faith as me. I wanted to stretch, to be bilingual," said DeGroot-Nesdahl. How wonderful it will be "when stretching to another's culture and experience and language and heritage is a value we lift up as individuals and congregations, not a foreign territory we fear and avoid. "God's word, from our mouths, and through our actions, shall not return empty. We are stretching," she said. During the Sunday morning worship service new officers and board members for Women of the ELCA were installed -- beginning three-year terms. The convention elected four officers: Sharroll A. Bernahl, Fort Morgan, Colo., president; Mary G. Seale, Roosevelt, N.Y., vice president; Donna L. Haack, Pomeroy, Iowa, secretary; and Nancy A. Hoffman, Lancaster, Ohio, treasurer. Seventeen women were elected to Women of the ELCA#s Executive Board: Faith A. Aston, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Janet L. Brewer, Anchorage, Alaska; Jackie K. Chattopadhyay, St. Anthony Village, Minn.; Linda Chinnia, Baltimore; Cynthia E. Cowen, Iron Mountain, Mich.; LaVaun Danielson, Franklin, Minn.; Sally C. Frank, Beaver, Pa.; Merle Frieji, Mayville, N.D.; Vicki Hamilton, Slidell, La; Carol F. Hines, Miller, S.D.; Irene E. Lee, Brimfield, Mass.; Borgne L. McClelland, Grafton, Wis.; Dolores R. Posey, Hollister, Calif.; Anna Purcella-Doll, Plano, Texas; Georganne W. Roberts, Olympia, Wash.; Judy Wagner, St. Pierre, Newport News, Va.; and Marilyn M. Sorenson-Bush, Cape Canaveral, Fla. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956