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Dear friends in Christ,
"It is a privilege, a blessings, to be with the people in this amazing
time." So David Parsons, a Lutheran seminarian on internship in the New
York City area, described his ministries this week. Among many challenges,
he is working with people seeking death certificates for missing loved
ones. "How can I bury a daughter without a body?" one person asked him.
This is an "amazing" time in which the church can bring blessings.
ú Lutheran Disaster Response (a cooperative ministry of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod)
continues its unfolding response to the immediate ministry needs in New
York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., and other affected areas. Here are a
number of developments this week:
ú "John," a 15-year-old student was in school. He and his classmates
watched that day as people jumped from buildings. In the metro New York
area, 140 Lutheran schools were directly affected with deaths of parents.
LDR is providing counselors to work with him and with other children
traumatized by this disaster. Anne Eissfeldt and Pastor Rick Armstrong,
"God's Care in Time of Crisis" staff, returned from Florida this week to
work with school staff and school children. Words of God's amazing comfort
were spoken.
ú Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn has been working with firefighters
and rescue workers at "Ground Zero" since September 11. Their continuing
presence and work there is but a small part of their total ministry in this
situation.
ú Dr. Gary Harbaugh, LDR Caregiver, met this past week with pastors and
church leaders in New Jersey and New York. They described their difficult
ministries of grief counseling, memorial services, and funerals. LDR is
working through Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey to offer
individual grief and trauma counseling. Gary told me that Bishop Ted
Schneider (Metro Washington DC Synod, ELCA) said the DC area community is
still in a state of shock. "There is confusion about what kind of response
to make, what to do that makes sense." In the Washington area, there are
about 300 students in LCMS schools. The larger school of about 200
students in Arlington heard the sounds of the attack on the Pentagon. Gary
will be returning on behalf of LDR to New Jersey next week to meet with the
pastors, and will be speaking God's words of amazing grace in a variety of
settings in the future.
ú This week Dr. John Scibilia was named as LDR of New York coordinator.
His decision meant resigning as ELCA Director of Schools. "My decision was
made in prayer, discerning where I might best serve the church and my Lord.
It was not made lightly.," he wrote.
ú Over the past weeks Lorraine Deon (Lutheran Services in America) logged
three pages of persons who volunteered for counseling. What a tremendous
response! I've sent a reply yesterday to begin the matching of gifts to
the sites.
ú I've sent the first checks of $439,000 to support initial efforts in this
response. I am enabled to do this on behalf of Lutheran Disaster Response
because of your generosity. The numbers are far less important than the
ministries that are being provided in Jesus' name.
Your support continues to be important, so the church can provide God's
amazing grace for the long haul. Please offer your prayers. Please
provide your contributions.
ELCA DOMESTIC Disaster Response - "September 11: Comfort and Renew"
PO Box 71764
Chicago, Illinois 60694-1764
Credit card gift line: 1-800-638-3522
Credit card gifts via the web: www.elca.org/disaster
LC-MS World Relief - "September 11: Comfort and Renew"
P.O. Box 66861
St. Louis, MO 63166-9810
Credit card gift line: 1-888-930-4438
Let me conclude this report with some personal notes. I must first mention
the strength of our Lutheran Church, for the pulling together of God's
gifted people from around the country to "be the Church" for this ministry.
The outpouring of talent and love goes beyond description. The partnership
of those around me is incredible. God's amazing love is clearly stronger
than the evil of humanity.
I the past two weeks I've had some difficulties with e-mail. One account
can "hold" 10 million bytes of data. It was clogged with 12.7 million.
Consequently I've lost at least 46 personal notes, and several of my
responses never got sent.
And finally, as we do ministry with caregivers (pastors, deaconesses,
church school teachers, agency staff), we talk about "care for the
caregiver." We urge our disaster caregivers to take time for withdrawal
and reflection early on in a disaster, so they can return refreshed and
renewed. For many months my wife and I have planned to take a vacation
week in early October. We will be leaving tomorrow. I hope, in my own
little way, to personally model to our many magnificent caregivers the need
to care for oneself in order to serve others.
Yours in Christ,
Gil Furst
GILBERT B. FURST (written on Fri, Oct 5, 2001, at 4:49 pm). Director for
ELCA DOMESTIC DISASTER RESPONSE (Division for Church in Society) and
LUTHERAN DISASTER RESPONSE (a cooperative ministry of the ELCA and LC-MS)
8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago 60631 PHONE: 773-380-2822 FAX: 773-380-2493
Please visit our website: www.elca.org/dcs/disaster
