Some Updates

Just over two weeks after the earthquake in Haiti and our relief efforts  are in full swing.

This morning I was pleased to receive word that LWR’s second shipment of material aid will soon be on its way to Haiti. In partnership with International Relief and Development, we are sending 11,550 quilts and 1,675 health kits. These will be distributed in Leogane, a town southwest of Port-au-Prince that was badly damaged by the earthquake. Our first shipment—containing 1,500 layettes and 650 health kits—arrived safely earlier this week and is being distributed in the Port-au-Prince area.

We’ve received a great response to our call for more health kits and quilts. Our headquarters staff has spoken to many people wanting to know how to start a ministry and how to get things to us fast. All I can say is…thank you and keep it up! We still need very much need your help to meet the needs in Haiti and around the world. 

We also ask you to continue to keep Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. The media attention is quickly turning elsewhere, but LWR is not. We are planning a long-term response aimed at building better lives for people in Haiti. I cannot stress this enough—we cannot do this work without your support.

I invite you to take a moment to visit our “Prayers for Haiti”  page. There you can share a prayer for the people of Haiti or simply read the prayers of others.

Thank you for all that you are doing to support this life-saving relief effort.

Critical Issues in Haiti

More from Rev. Matthew Harrison

It's Tuesday afternoon, the 26th of January and I'm somewhere over the Caribbean en route to Miami. I'm tired. I'm filled with anxiousness as we move toward the next phase of disaster relief for Haiti. The assessment team was present with the Haitian Lutherans. The team listened. The team saw what needed to be seen. Those of us who remained working in Jimani at the hospital have a very clear understanding of the medical issues which will be faced as we move to establish a temporary hospital in Jacmel, which is the heart of the Lutheran areas in Haiti, and the heart of an area underserved.

Working with the Dominican World Mission team, we have a boat contracted to bring tents specifically requested by the partner church, including larger tents for a hospital, examination rooms, etc. A second Medical Mercy Team will hit the ground in Jacmel on Sunday. They will immediately begin treating wounds related to trauma, especially orthopedic issues. We know from our medical teams, and from the consultation provided by Jimani MMT member, Dr. William Maloney (from whose report I am borrowing liberally), that there is a four to six week period to properly treat broken bones, reset poorly treated breaks and treat infections and infected amputations in order to avoid longer term complications.

Childhood mortality from infectious disease will be on the increase do to the weakened state of many children who were already in a situation of compromised health before the quake. This will require an immediate vaccination effort. A mortality rate of as much as 30% can result in such situations. There is an immediate need for vitamin supplementation for at- risk children. Cholera, measles and meningitis outbreaks are likely and will need to be treated immediately. Acute malnutrition is likely for many, particularly due to the rapid increase in the number of orphans, loss of income, families, etc. LCMS World Relief will assist the local church in establishing food distribution in cooperation and coordination with the local church, and in proximity to the clinic(s). By the way, from all indications there is an abundance of available food in the Dominican, and every dollar saved on shipping costs buys another dollar of rice or beans while contributing to the local economies of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And at the suggestion of President Kessa, and with the help of Ted Krey, we have secured a boat for regular food shipment from Santiago to Jacmel.

Over the period of 2-6 months there will be an overwhelming need for physical therapy, pastoral care and counseling, prosthetics, rehab, etc. The high number of amputations will require an aggressive prosthetics program. Traveling to developing countries (and this especially true of Haiti) one notices many individuals who have been handicapped by injury or birth defect, who live life begging and in squalor having little or usually no access to prosthetics and other treatment we take for granted in the U.S. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder counseling and training will be broadly needed, particularly for Haitian Lutheran clergy, health workers, aid workers and others.

Vocational assistance and housing will be long-term issues. It remains to be seen whether and what housing solutions come to the fore. There will no doubt be a large hodgepodge of housing solutions, most driven by the ingenuity and need of locals, but likely with relatively few dwellings being built with materials and methods meant to withstand future quakes. I well recall tent cities in many areas affected by the great Asian Tsunami, lasted for years. Micro-loan programs have been operated by LWR, LCMS World Relief and many partners for decades, and will be especially necessary in this situation. We must make every effort to train, serve and encourage talented and eager Haitians (of which, there is no shortage). They themselves are now, and will be the key force behind this effort at recovery. And these very talented individuals will arise from unlikely and very surprising places. It is they who hold the key to the future recovery and long-term improvement in their own country. LWR health kits and quilts, and later, school kits, will be vital treasures for months and months to come.

I noticed something while studying Jesus' actions to assist those in need. When the text uses the great word for "compassion" (splachnizesthai) of Jesus, his concern for the needy never stops at mere empathy. Jesus always acts. He never fails to act. So shall American Lutherans. Help us come alongside our old and soon to be new Haitian friends. Thrivent is offering matching dollars for gifts to LCMS World Relief, and to LWR. The Lutheran Foundation in St. Louis is now matching gifts to LCMS World Relief up to a total of $750,000!

Pastor Matthew Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care
Board Member, LWR

Let us Pray

Along with your gifts and requests to help the people of Haiti, many of you have sent along beautiful prayers. I’m pleased to announce that LWR has created a forum for you and others to share your prayers for the people of Haiti.

Take a moment to post a prayer if you feel so moved or read the prayers that others have posted.

I cannot say this enough (so I will say it again)—thank you, thank you, thank you for your overwhelming support, generosity and compassion in the face of this devastating disaster.

Leave it to the New Yorker

In an earlier post I described briefly the chaos that ensued on I believe, the 23rd of January at the hospital compound in Jimani, when a significant tremor struck the area. 1500 patients and family members, doctors, nurses, children, locals, expatriates all ran for their lives and out of the buildings. One poor man jumped from the second story of the large orphanage turned to hospital. His leg had been amputated, but now his pelvis was fractured.

Rev. Ted Krey, who had been ministering to these people one by one for days (along with his incredibly capable team), said, "Just walk among the people and calm them." We went about praying, sitting, talking, singing, reassuring ­ being present. After about 20 minutes a man stood up and began to lead the people in Creole hymns. The African style singing was a stark faith-filled contrast and antidote to the terror, weeping and fright now ebbing. Another fifteen minute or so later, a man stood from the second floor balcony with a bullhorn. He began shouting, telling the people to have courage, it is the end of the world. While I'd be hard pressed to reject the content of his eschatology ("When all these things begin to take place, look up for your redemption draweth nigh."), his preaching did anything but calm the crowd. And calm was what was needed as all the patients now needed to be re-triaged, having pulled loose bandages, I.V.s, damaged treated wounds, etc., scrambling out of the building.

Pastor Ted immediately suggested we begin handing out the meals to calm the crowd. It worked. One of the first one to whom I offered the Styrofoam container was an older Haitian man, stout with a majestic countenance. He sat next to his relatives more seriously hurt than himself, head in hand, weeping. As I extended the tray to him, he shook his head, "no." The crowd was completely calm again when a man (whether the same as the earlier one I do not know) climbed on top of a trailer, bullhorn in hand and began to try to stir up the crowd again. Neither do I know if he was intent on the same eschatological rant. In any case, the wheel-chaired Haitian immediately shouted to the young stirrer in Creole. Not knowing a lick of Creole, I'll offer a conjectured translation: "Sit down and shut up you fool! These people don't need this now!" His deep authoritative voice immediately accomplished its goal.

After all the meals had gone out, and the truck had run to get more, I sat on the sand in front of his wheel chair. I apologized, speaking only the few words of Spanish and French I know (If only I'd paid more attention to my French speaking Grandmother when she was alive), telling him I could not converse in those languages (much less Creole). He responded in crystal clear English. "No problem, we can speak in English." My eyes opened wide and a smile marked my face.

"Where did you learn such good English?"

"I live in New York, I was just down here vacationing, visiting my relatives."

"Some vacation," I responded! We had a nice chat about life, about God, about family. He hoped he and his injured wife (I believe) would leave for home (Long Island) the next day.

Even in the chaos of international disaster, it takes a New Yorker to get the job done. "Now shut up and sit down!"

The larger point is that the Haitians themselves and their Dominican neighbors will be the most significant leaders in responding to this disaster. And any long term and lasting improvement of lives which happen from the capacity built by accompanying, by coming along side the thousands upon thousands of still healthy, bright, effective Haitians who know their culture, and will be the key to a better future.

That's what LWR is about.

Pastor Matthew Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care Board Member, LWR

Thank You

More from the Rev. Matthew Harrison in the Dominican Republic

Monday, January 25 -- The team of LCMS docs just debriefed, packed themselves into two vans here in Jimani, Dominican Republic, and headed off on the six hour trip to the capital and back home. What an amazing group!

Not a half hour ago, we were all together on the back porch of the large home, which has been the erstwhile dorm for medical teams. The stories of who was with us, how they were assembled within hours, and then put on the ground is amazing. The docs and nurses where high-level professionals, university instructors, emergency room doctors, and nurses--experts in numerous disciplines. As we talked, they were thankful, traumatized, joyous, exhausted, and emotional. They expressed profound struggle in dealing with the carnage they had just walked into; and yet at the same time, profound faith in Jesus.

As the first tremor struck last night, and as the LCMS missionaries delivered trucks full of meals, I was asked to guard the load until the word was given to disperse the precious cargo. I leaned against the tailgate, and a tall, mustached gentleman with an easy southern accent struck up a conversation. He was in his scrubs watching the chaos of 1500 Haitians who not ten minutes earlier had scrambled for their lives out of the orphanage converted to a hospital.

"Where ya from?" I asked.

"Georgia."

"Who ya with," I continued.

"I'm with a group called the LCMS. I never even knew they existed, had no idea what they did, but a friend of mine called and asked me to go. I've never been so impressed with a group of people in my life."

"That's great to hear," I said. "I'm with the LCMS too."

One of the seasoned emergency room docs struggled to get hold of what she'd just seen. She wept as she recounted the story of stepping off the bus late at night this past Tuesday and jumping into the operating room. Her first patient was a young woman who lay bleeding to death on the floor. The team worked and tried everything, but life was quickly ebbing. The woman had lost her entire family. "What should I say to her?" the doc asked others in the room? "Tell her it's o.k. . . . to go be with her family." She did so.
"Pastor, I don¹t know how to cope with this," she told me. I helped her begin to process the matter in the context of the cross of Jesus. "Pastor, I¹m going back home now. The people I work with will not understand this. Patients where I work complain about everything. I just treated a woman who had her arm guillotined with nothing but Tylenol as pain reliever, and she was smiling at me, thanking me. I couldn't believe it. These people have lost everything, and they are so thankful."

As I was writing this, a doctor just appeared behind the building where I am sitting, moaning in anguish and pain about what he'd just experienced. One of our pastors was with him. He's just come from Port au Prince, is exhausted, overwhelmed, hasn't slept in days. The volume of trauma is infinite. He feels great need to return.

In the midst of all this, the Haitians have shown amazing faith, regularly singing hymns to Jesus as they huddle with their lone surviving child or a new friend on the ground or in the next bed over.

O blessed Jesus, have mercy upon your people. Cause this affliction to cease. Comfort the dying, the sick, and the traumatized. Uphold the faith, hearts, and hands of all those many who are were unharmed but now are assisting the needy, and also those who have come as angels of mercy. Amen.

No mind can comprehend this. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Rom. 11:33).

We can only face tomorrow with the knowledge that the outpouring of love and blessing in the wake of this disaster is and will be one of the most phenomenal acts of mercy in our time together on this earth.

Pastor Matthew Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care
Board Member, LWR

Rev. Matthew. Harrison submits his second LWR post.

I’ve never been so proud and humbled to be a member of the LCMS. When the LCMS assessment team arrived in Jimani on the southern Dominican/Haiti border, it was late. It was early morning before we got into bed for a very short night of sleep. Rev. Ted Krey, Rev. Walter, and Danelle Putnam greeted us with joy, laboring under the fatigue masked by adrenalin--just enough to sustain for days on end with little or no sleep. The LCMS WM team in the Dominican is incredible in any case, but in the past week they’ve shone with a compassion and determination under the most severe trials. We are at a hospital, which has performed some 500 major surgeries in the past four days, victims helicoptered in from Haiti. Ted Krey and his team have been a force for mercy and the Gospel, with real compassion.

Ted immediately figured out the logistics and delivery necessities of food and water for all patients and their families--1500 of them at distribution time. (That’s finding a need and filling it!). The Civil Defense Corps (a Dominican, mostly voluntary, organization) quickly assembled cooking facilities in the nearby town. Daily, Pastor Krey personally oversees and himself distributes water to everyone at every meal, and personally assists in the distribution of meals to all. Ready, young Haitians bunch behind the truck to disperse the Styrofoam containers of rice, beans, spaghetti, etc. in stacks of five or six. Between meals, Krey and his staff are tending to a hundred issues, questions, pastoral care concerns. In down time, they are speaking with people about Christ and bearing witness graciously through it all, consoling consciences wounded and sorrowful and hurting over mistakes and tensions and failings and weaknesses so prevalent in time of catastrophe. Make no mistake, food and water to victims of this tragedy are a critical, life-and-death issue. The initial mortality rate was high and fell dramatically when the LCMS medical team hit the ground with Pastor Krey at their side, though pastoral tasks have also included the purchase of caskets and transport of the deceased to the morgue and cemetery.

Ted moves through the crowds, completely understated, black collar with tab. He kneels, converses in fluent Spanish, and consoles, answers questions, finds aid, and solves problems. Last night, when a tremor threw everything into chaos, Ted was on the spot as 1500 patients and their families emptied the buildings. It’s vital for clergy to wear clericals in such times. The cross dangling from my neck has been the source of consolation, grasped in hands by those who do not understand my prayers to Jesus for them, yet understood fully. A protestant pastor in street clothes pulled me aside as I worked through the crowd alongside Ted and Walter. “Hey! I’m a ____ pastor! If you need some help, come and get me.” A well meaning and pious Christian to be sure, and God bless him for coming . . . but he was quickly lost in the crowd, and to me.

This is an amazing example of fidelity in word and deed in the midst of a chaotic, often crazy situation with the broadest representation of faiths--Christians and non-Christians (including the emergency workers). It is once again the strongest affirmation that there is no substitute for Lutheran accompaniment. Be present, act, love, serve. That’s the Jesus route in time of disaster.

Give generously. There is a whole lot of accompaniment coming.

LCMS.org, LWR.org

Matt Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care
LWR Board Member

On the Ground

The Rev. Matthew Harrison, Executive Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care and a member of LWR's board of directors, is on the ground working with earthquake survivors, and offers this report and his reflections.

John, Friends of LWR, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Already last Tuesday a team of a dozen triage and emergency medical specialists hit the ground here in Jimani, in the far southwest Dominican. This LCMS World Relief and Human Care medical mercy team arrived late in the evening after a six hour drive from Santa Domingo. A team of helicopters, financed by a generous individual, had been and continues to fly in victims of the quake. Port au Prince is some 50 miles distant, across the Haitian Border.

I write this morning at 8:30 a.m. from the veranda of a large vacant home, which now houses forty or fifty medical professionals, including the LCMS team. The hospital runs on two shifts, and performs about 40 surgeries per shift. About one third of the procedures have been amputations. Large relief agencies are beginning to arrive on the scene from Puerto Rico and other places, and the LCMS team will exit later today. It's amazing how God times things. They came at a moment of burgeoning numbers of casualties arriving, and fatalities taking place at a very high rate. For two critical nights the LCMS team staffed much of and ran the operation.

I am in awe of these faithful folks. As I remained in Jimani, an assessment team from the LCMS entered Haiti with LCMS partners who met us at the border, and proceeded to Jacmel and Port au Prince. Seasoned disaster man Glenn Merritt, in Jacmel as I write, expressed his thoughts briefly but ominously: "I have seen things today that no person should ever have to see."

Last night was traumatic for the 1500 Haitians here at the medical compound. Around 6:00 p.m. a tremor shook the area. Everyone fled for their lives into the yard in front of the buildings. There was widespread mourning and weeping, fear in the eyes of little children, old men looking skyward and shaking their heads. All the patients had to be re-triaged because they had pulled the I.V.s from their arms. Amputees crawled out of a makeshift recovery ward in an open-air chapel. It was pandemonium.

LCMS Missionary Ted Krey (nephew of LWR board member Phil Krey), quickly urged all of us clergy to make our way among the large crowd, comforting and praying with the people. The three languages among the people are Creole, French and Spanish. I came upon a little girl and her mother. The child was but 5 or so, and had a pelvic body cast which extended down both legs, as well as an arm cast. She was terrified. I reached down to touch here and bless her in the name of Jesus (it's so important to have one's clericals and crucifix on), and she grabbed my hand, and pulled on my arm, pleading with me. I sat with her for twenty minutes. I prayed, I tried to speak comfort to her and her mother. I sang 'I am Jesus Little Lamb' and her breathing slowed.

Finally Brazilian Missionary Pastor Walter chanced by in the melee. "Walter, what does she want." "She is asking if you have some way to take her and her mother away from here." I did not. But she had been cared for, her life spared. Many others have not been so fortunate. Thankfully there has as yet been little or no incidence of Typhoid or other infectious diseases. But as I've talked with the surgeons in-between shifts, there has been great concern over secondary infections, particularly with amputees, and the inevitable absence of physical therapy and prosthetics, much less care in the wake of the trauma which will accompany these dear people for the rest of their days.

As I finish the helicopters are up again, there are reports of completely insufficient aid into Jacmal (where most of our Lutherans live). Water of course is a critical issue after just 2 or three days, food after two weeks. Those who have been on the ground here repeatedly express how each day the chaos has become a little more controlled, and that reality is going on throughout Haiti.

It will be vital for LWR for carry out its invaluable mission, particularly in the area of its forte, material goods (school kits, medical kits) as the crisis enters its intermediate phase. And LWR's tremendous capacity for building and assisting communities in obtaining economic capacity and security long term, will be a vital mission for year to come.

Last week Pat Robertson suggested that Haiti had some deep dark sin in its past, which brought this curse. In God's inverted, cruciform economy, where a sinless Son of God suffers for the unrighteous, I rather think this is God's shaking of us sinners in the U.S., for ignoring our impoverished brothers and sisters, also brothers and sisters in the faith in Haiti. Lord have mercy.

Matt Harrison, Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care; Board Member, LWR

No Small Act

Our supporters continue to bless us with prayers and stories about how they are putting their faith into action on behalf of the people of Haiti.

I share the following story as a reminder that there are no “small” acts of compassion. And no small “actors.”

This is Mario Carmona. He’s nine years old and from Minnesota. Being a child (and thus, unemployed, as children tend to be) Mario didn’t have much himself to give to the people of Haiti. But he did have a voice and he decided to use it.

Carrying a simple plastic ice cream bucket, Mario began to go door-to-door, asking his neighbors to give what they could to help the people of Haiti. When he had visited all his neighbors, he decided to talk to people at his church.Once he’d talked to his church, he talked to his school principal about raising money for the people of Haiti. Mario’s bucket filled quickly.

Mario’s story inspires me, but not only because of his apparent compassion and generosity. Instead of feeling disempowered or disconnected, as we can often come to feel in times of crisis, this young man decided to take action, to find his own unique way to help and in doing so he empowered others to join him.

We thank Mario and everyone who has given a gift to Lutheran World Relief in support of the people of Haiti. Please know that your gifts, big and small, are helping to sustain lives and inspire hope through Haiti’s darkest days.

Quilt and Kit Partners Joiningin Support of Haiti

The response to the January 12 earthquake in Haiti has been astonishing, with prayers and gifts reaching LWR and the people in Haiti who face so much suffering. Yesterday, one of Lutheran World Relief’s quilt and kit partners joined this effort as well.

LWR had planned to send $1 million worth of quilts and kits to those in need in Sierra Leone. The materials were to be distributed to people in need in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the mounting needs there, LWR contacted its partner, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone (ELCSL), and asked to reduce this shipment by half. LWR explained the critical need to provide immediate support to the people of Haiti, and offered to send more materials to ELCSL at a later time, when its stocks are replenished.

While an organization in a similar situation might express reservations – the needs in Sierra Leone are also great – the ELCSL responded with gratitude. The Bishop of the ELCSL, Reverend Thomas J. Barnett, wrote that LWR’s request “creates an opportunity and fulfills for us a burning desire to give a helping hand to the people of Haiti in this, their hour of greatest need.”

ELCSL’s generosity translates to more than 30,000 quilts and 6,500 health kits for people affected by the earthquake. More than 3,000 school kits will also be provided once education is re-established in Haiti.

ELCSL’s act of giving and prayerful support is exemplary of the global Lutheran response to provide comfort and save the lives of the people in Haiti affected by the earthquake.

Experience at the Epicenter

As aftershocks continue to rock the traumatized island-nation of Haiti, LWR continues steadily to coordinate the best and wisest response. We are blessed with 65 years of experience which makes a difference when you’re dealing with a disaster. Our institutional memory, accrued expertise and depth of technical networks have advised us through this utterly devastating crisis.

More and more stories of LWR’s reputation and legacy of putting faith into action come to my attention. Listen to a Jarrod Garland, whom I met while preaching this weekend at a dynamically compassionate congregation, King of Kings Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska.



Every resource we have available to us, including our experience, is being implemented as we channel Lutheran relief efforts to rebuild this desperate place, starting at the epicenter of human suffering.

Reaching Out

Your response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti has been phenomenal. Thank you for the prayers you’ve sent both for those affected and for our staff working on the ground to help. Thank you also for making use of the various ways to give so that we can continue the work to bring water, food, and shelter to the people of Haiti.

Now it is time to reach out. Our partners at Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have been working on the ground to construct a clearer picture of the needs on the ground. What they are seeing is that while things are bad in the city of Port-au-Prince, there is also extensive damage to surrounding rural areas.

Right now most of the relief effort in Haiti is concentrated in Port-au-Prince and few, if any, relief organizations are working to attend to the needs of rural communities in the aftermath of the earthquake. Work with LWF and other partners, LWR will reach out to communities in the surrounding areas, who are just as severely affected as their urban counterparts.

These “last mile” communities were already blighted by poverty, hunger, and lack of opportunity. This disaster makes these communities so much more vulnerable and we are working hard to reach them.

I am also heartened to report that tomorrow, along with our partners at Church World Service, we will be sending a shipment of material aid to Haiti. In this shipment we’re including health kits and layettes, both items that will promote sanitation and good health in the midst of this crisis. The needs on the ground are so great that we’d like to send another shipment of quilts and health kits soon, but to do this we need your help.

Our stock of health kits is critically low. With so many homeless and in need, for every health kit we give, there are many more families who need one. Please consider donating health kits to LWR so that we can continue to meet needs in Haiti and around the world.
Please continue to keep the people of Haiti in your prayers and please continue to support the work of LWR and its partners around the world as we work to reach “the least of these” with your gifts of love and compassion.

Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria, courtesy www.alertnet.org.

Loving Care from Omaha

I had the great fortune to visit the King of Kings congregation in Omaha, Nebraska, this weekend – what a wonderful, globally minded, loving congregation. The visit had been planned for a long while, and, given the events of this week, I frankly wondered if perhaps I ought to cancel. But I’m so glad I went. In the midst of such a difficult time, such a tumultuous and painful week, it did my soul good to witness the loving care and generosity of God’s children in this congregation.




Thank you, King of Kings, for your love offering to help the people of Haiti. Thank you for being among the first to donate through our new text-to-give service. Thank you for ministering to me, even as we at LWR work to minister to those in such desperate need in Haiti.
Soon I’ll be sharing some video clips of a few members of King of Kings that I met and spoke with this weekend. In the meantime, I invite you to follow the link below to listen to the message I shared with them on Sunday morning.

http://www.kingofkingsomaha.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=47824

Prayerful Support

Since LWR began responding to the earthquake in Haiti, we have received an overwhelming number of thoughts and prayers, both for the people of Haiti and for LWR as we work to respond.

This disaster in particular has struck a chord within many hearts, perhaps because the existence of such abject poverty that has persisted in Haiti for centuries is tragic enough. To have such utter and complete destruction heaped on top of it seems unbearable.

I’d like to share just a few of the many thoughts and prayers that our friends are sharing with us. If you have any words to share, please feel free to leave a note in the comments. We thank you for all your prayers. Please know that we are working hard to get to people with life-saving relief.

“For Haiti earthquake - May God move many to help. Lord in your mercy hear our prayers for the people in Haiti and the rescue workers.”

“May God be with all those who are suffering in Haiti and to those who are helping those in need.”

“Thank you LWR for all that you do in Jesus Name to help the souls of Haiti.”

Lutherans Around the World Respond to Haiti

Eberhard Hitzler, Executive Director of LWF's Division for World Service

“You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay O my God.” Psalm 40:11

Thankfully, US Lutherans are not delaying in their concern and care for the people of Haiti. LWR’s phone is ringing, the mailbox is filling and the web site is receiving record hits. Why? Because all of us are a part of the answer to the prayers of millions of Haitians whose needs are so great. We cannot delay our support and action.

I am thrilled to hear that our partners the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) find themselves in similar situations.

I am thankful that another of our core partners—Lutheran World Federation (LWF) which has not delayed as they begin to stage a massive response to the situation in Haiti. I just got off the phone with Eberhard Hitzler, Lutheran World Federation’s (LWF) Executive Director for World Service. (You might recognize Eberhard’s name because he frequently reads and comments on my blog. He is a dear friend.)

I always come away enriched, challenged and motivated from my conversations with Eberhard, but, today I was particularly struck by one of Eberhard’s comments. He said, “The earthquake in Haiti was a devastating event. But, for many of those living in Haiti the situation before the earthquake was also horrible. Maybe now we can all assist the Haitian people in rebuilding a country that becomes better than it has ever been.”

It is clear that the rescue, recovery and rebuilding efforts in Haiti will be vast. LWF is gearing up for a massive operation that will require significant financial resources. Before we hung up, Eberhard offered one final call to Lutherans around the world: “When it comes to the earthquake in Haiti—think beyond this moment. We must view this and work with the long-term perspective in mind.”

Sobering thoughts of Haiti

Rescuers treat an injured child. REUTERS/Reuters TV, courtesy www.alertnet.org.

You have surely seen the iconic image on the news—the now dilapidated presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city.

If the 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed one of the country’s sturdiest buildings, imagine what it has done to the humble homes in which the majority of Haitians reside. Imagine the terror the people must have felt as the earth moved beneath them and kept moving in intervals throughout the night and the next morning. Imagine the suffering this impoverished country must now feel, surrounded by destruction and despair.

Thousands are feared dead, thousands more are injured, and many sleep outside with no food or water because they have no place else to go.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers and help LWR respond with life-saving relief.

Your compassion means so much in these difficult times.

Doing the Work of Christmas

That vivacious vicar, Thurman Frey, joined by Carol, his indomitable wife, and the faithful flock of Holy Cross Lutheran Church warmed me a cold morning. Welcomed to this Towson congregation, I preached a message spotlighting LWR’s work. Predictably, on this celebration of the Baptism of our Lord, “water” flowed as a theme, its life-giving character, the fatal implications of its global scarcity, and the power of its regenerative, spiritual dimensions.

Prior to the worship, I led an adult information session regarding LWR’s mission. Members from two other, neighboring churches—First Lutheran (LCMS) and Ascension Lutheran (ELCA)—were drawn to the host Holy Cross congregation for this time of deeper engagement. The dialogue was probing, especially regarding the impact of sustainable development strategies that are both anti-poverty and pro-people by investing in human capacity.

The twelve days of Christmas have ended until next year, but we labor year-round in the light of its radiance. A quotation from Howard Thurman, a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., appeared in the Holy Cross bulletin entitled, “The Work of Christmas.”

When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To teach the nations
To bring Christ to all
To make music in the heart.

The photograph, taken with a handy camera phone, depicts Holy Cross’ chancel window.