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To: [log in to unmask] 1264 (of 1264) LEON PHILLIPS Aug. 18, 1997 at 21:49 Eastern (2045 characters) This past Sunday morning I worshipped at my home congregation, St. Stephen's, in Allentown, Pennsylvania - a not exactly common experience with the travel schedule of this year. I was surprised when a group was called to the altar, and sent off with prayer to travel five hundred miles to the Ohio River Valley, where they will help repair and rebuild homes damaged by last Spring's floods there. It was a moving experience for me to be part of a congregation praying for these volunteers in disaster response... and commissioning them to ministry. Clearly, the folks in church Sunday saw their volunteer work as a ministry of our own congregation, and viewed these volunteers as their own ambassadors of Christian love and compassion. I am sure this scene has been repeated in countless congregations during the terrible disasters of this year. This particular Sunday morning, in my own congregation, it was a powerful reminder to me that it is MINISTRY we are about in disaster response, and in fact the ministry of the congregations of the ELCA. Thank God for the women, men and youth who carry their congregation's ministry - and the ELCA's.. to places of need ! I hope this note of thanks will reach some of you who have been volunteers in disaster - as many as six thousand in this past year and a half. The whole church does well to give praise to God for the gifts these volunteers bring- the gift of God's own love and the love of God's people for one another, gifts beyond price. And to that praise I am sure the folks in the Red River Valley, Ohio River Valley, Arkansas, Fort Collins, Colorado, the Virgin Islands - all places where disaster volunteers have served this year- would want to say a loud and clear "AMEN." LEON PHILLIPS 9:19 pm Mon, Aug 18, 1997 Director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response( Division for Church in Society), Lutheran Disaster Response ( a cooperative ministry of ELCA and LCMS) Phone: 610-776-8390 FAX: 610-776-8392 e-mail:[log in to unmask] WEBSITE http://www.elca.org/dcs/disaster