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We humbly dedicate our gifts of love to you. We ask that you bless the fruits of our labor and the whole work of Lutheran World Relief, that together we may minister to our neighbors in need.
Today at Messiah Lutheran Church, we dedicate a year’s worth of work by two of our ministries. The Comforters and the Kit Ministers produced hundreds of items that will go to Lutheran World Relief in support of global ministries.
Lutheran World Relief is a non-profit organization that works with local partners to provide lasting solutions to poverty, injustice and human suffering.
The goal of LWR is to help communities cope with and recover from emergencies in ways that promote lasting improvements in people’s living conditions
Mission Quilts: When you make and send a Quilt, you are not only comforting someone you have never met, but providing an object that is useful in ways you probably never imagined. In addition to being a cozy, clean new bed cover, it can be:
- a baby carrier, tied around a mother’s back;
- a market display, spread on the ground and piled with vegetables;
- a sack for transporting those goods to market;
- a sunshade;
- a shawl; and most importantly
- a constant reminder that someone, far away, cares a lot.
This year the Kit Ministers produced and packaged approximately 750 school kits, 300 personal care kits and 300 Baby Care Kits.
Personal Care Kits: When LWR distributes Personal Care Kits, it’s often to people who have lost everything. In the wake of an earthquake, or having fled from violence as their homes were overtaken, they clasp a towel from a faraway place, with a bar of soap, a toothbrush…and washing up, they know that they have not been forsaken by the world.
Baby Care Kits: A Baby Care Kit from LWR is like a promise. It says to that baby, Your needs will not be neglected by this world. You matter to us. When you send Baby Care Kits, you provide encouragement by welcoming these little ones into an international community that cares. Baby Care Kits are distributed as part of emergency and relief efforts, to be sure, but they are also given out as part of LWR health initiatives to encourage women to seek prenatal care. One such initiative in Mali provided training for local prenatal health care workers, who were given Baby Care Kits to distribute when they assisted with births. These kinds of programs help more babies in rural, poor areas receive a healthy start in life. We hope you will join us in this effort!
School Kits: Why school supplies? To the children who receive School Kits, these supplies mean the difference between getting an education or not. Public school is usually free, but in the places where LWR works, even a few required supplies, like pens and paper, may be more than many families can afford. And when parents can only afford to send one of their children to school, girls rarely get priority…yet the education level of mothers has the biggest impact on development.
The Comforters meet each Tuesday at 10 am. If you would like to participate in the Comforters Ministry, please contact Annette Joens.
The Kit Ministers meet in the evening. If you would like to participate with the Kit Ministers, please contact Rhonda Gaede.
Here are some more photos of these two ministries in action.