Dear Friend,
I am blessed to serve alongside you to share God’s love with our neighbors! Throughout 2025, we celebrated Lutheran World Relief’s 80th anniversary while navigating a rapidly changing world. I spent the year reflecting on what it means to follow God faithfully — through the wilderness, beside still waters, in war zones and in the face of poverty — for over eight decades.
I appreciated anew that YOU are the answer to our prayers. Your generosity is God’s provision, your deep compassion our strength. And no matter where the need takes us or how challenging the path, your love finds a way because it is rooted in the steadfast love of Christ.
This report is a snapshot of the many ways your light shone in the world this year. At times you brought urgent relief from suffering, and at others you inspired genuine hope for the future, grounded in sustainable solutions. And always, I thank God for you. In grateful partnership,
Ambassador Daniel Speckhard
President and CEO
Last year, you helped girls like Abibatu Bangura continue their studies. Abibatu started missing long stretches of school two years ago after her mother Zainab got very sick and could no longer maintain a stable income.
For Abibatu, your love looks like a monthly cash transfer (about $10 USD) to meet her basic needs, plus other program support. To receive the cash, she must attend regularly — which is no longer a problem. Abibatu says, “This year, I come to school every day because of the cash grant.”
Methane gas emissions are extremely harmful for our planet and for all God’s creatures. Livestock, especially cattle, contribute up to 19.6% of the methane in our atmosphere. Meanwhile, poorly managed manure pollutes water and soil.
In South Sulawesi, Indonesia, your generosity helps farmers capture the methane from their cows’ manure to keep it out of the atmosphere — and turn both manure and methane into useful products for home and farm.
Biogas systems turn methane from manure into a cooking fuel that, when burned, releases less harmful gases. Biogas systems also break down manure to produce organic fertilizer that nourishes the crops that nourish our neighbors.
Dayana Fuentes was among the 25% of young adults in Honduras who are in limbo without a job or a marketable education. At 19, she could neither afford college nor land a decent position.
Although leaving Honduras has never appealed to Dayana, many people — including her mother — leave home in search of opportunity elsewhere.
This year, you opened a path for Dayana to start a career.
In September 2024, we announced an exciting expansion of the Quilt & Kit Ministry. Going forward, we would conduct distributions in the US as well as internationally.
Within two weeks, Hurricanes Helene and Milton swept across the Southeast. Thanks to your divinely timed love, we were able to mount a response that went far beyond quilts and kits. Since then, our domestic disaster response work has spread from coast to coast.