LCC received a request for assistance from Pastor Steven Warren of St. Paul Lutheran Church & School in Chicago, Illinois, for one of their teachers. One of our teachers at St. Paul has been prescribed the opportunity to have a service dog to assist her with her Complex PTSD. She is in need of funding to obtain her emotional support dog. The cost is $25,000. As a recent college graduate and a Lutheran school teacher, she does not have this money. Would you please assist our congregation with helping her to find this funding and the location of a service dog provider? Thank you for your time and efforts regarding this request. Any support you can provide would be a blessing. In His Service, Pastor Steven Warren St. Paul Lutheran Church & School Chicago, Illinois LCC received a request for assistance from Pastor Hesham Shehab of Salam Christian Fellowship in Lombard, Illinois. Dear Friends, Brother Boutros, 63, who is part of Salam's evangelism team on the south side of Chicago, needs help paying medical bills. Boutros has recently lost his wife, who helped in paying the mortgage, and is in the process of re-organizing his life around this new reality. $1,000 is needed to relieve Boutros of his debt. Boutros lives on the south side of Chicago, where a hundred thousand Muslims live. Those suburbs are called "Little Palestine." The mosques and Islamic organizations there are mostly run by radical Muslim leaders who polarize the Islamic population against the West and Israel and pressure women to don hijab, as well as work against the integration of Islamic communities in the American way of life. Recently, two Salam Bible study attendees were harassed by three radical Muslims in Bridgeview, Illinois, immediately after they left the Lutheran church in that neighborhood. Please pray for Salam and Boutros as we reach out to Muslims in that hostile environment and donate generously to support our widowed brother. In Christ, Pastor Hesham Shehab Thank you to the LCC donor for a donation of a pair of bunk beds, a desk, a bookshelf, and linens. They brought comfort and a measure of security to Pastor Garcia and Sandra’s three daughters. Sandra and their three daughters arrived the last week in July to be reunited with Pastor Garcia, nine months after fleeing Mexico because the Mexican drug cartel threatened to kill the Pastor and his family. The girls are excited to start the new school year and make new friends. The oldest daughter is a freshman in high school, and the other two are in elementary school. A special thank you to Eric and his father, Heriberto Fernandez, from Iglesia Luterana San Pablo in Aurora, Illinois, who provided the truck and helped Pastor Garcia pick up the furniture. Your in-kind donation and donations of time and service make a big difference in the lives of these traumatized children. Thank you! Recently, the LCC Human Care team partnered with Immanuel Lutheran Church in Glenview, Illinois, and members of the community to donate forty-two bags of clothing, forty-five pairs of shoes, and bedding to migrants in Chicago. Earlier this year, First St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Chicago, St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church of Chicago, Chicago Hope Initiative, and LCC formed a partnership to open a store for migrants and families in need. While working with the community service network and other Christian churches, First St. Paul's recognized that migrants lacked basic needs items and wanted to create a space for people to pick up what they need. They did not have the building space, so St. Chrysostom's down the street offered their gym for the summer months. Chicago Hope Initiative, which provides social workers for migrant families, joined the partnership to show migrant families to the store to receive basic supplies. First St. Paul and St. Chrysostom's coordinated volunteers for logistics and to run the store. LCC was invited to the ministry network to broker resources from other local churches and non-profits so they can provide much-needed items to “The Store.” With school starting at St. Chrysostom's, their gymnasium was no longer available to house “The Store” for migrants. Just recently, a new home was found for “The Store.” It now has a new permanent home for two years, which will give them time to grow and develop the program. Our LCC staff had the opportunity to see the new site for “The Store” as we delivered donated items. We are grateful for the ministry of “The Store” and the impact it will have. Many of the people only arrive with the clothes they are wearing and a backpack with a few personal belongings. When people come to the “The Store,” they will be able to pick out clothes, shoes, household items, toys for children, and furniture to help them settle into their new community in Chicagoland. Please pray for the partnership of First St. Paul, St. Chrysostom's, Chicago Hope Initiative, and LCC as we work together to serve those in need. If you, your family, group, or congregation would like to collect items for the store, contact Denise Snider at LCC at dsnider@lutheranchurchcharities.org. On Sunday, August 20, LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs Abraham & Beloved (Trinity - Hicksville, New York), Addie & Leah (Immanuel - Danbury Connecticut), Kezia (Emmanuel - Baltimore, Maryland), and Obadiah (Christ Lutheran - Scituate, Massachusetts) welcomed the new Pastor of Immanuel Lutheran, Danbury Connecticut, Ryan Oaks, his wife Colleen, and their son.
These master’s degree students from across the globe wanted to hear how L.E.R.T. responds to disasters so they could learn how to assist their churches and organizations prepare and care for a disaster-filled world. The students were divided into three groups and given real-world scenarios to discuss/solve before they were provided with how the scenarios actually played out. They asked questions and then toured the St. John’s L.E.R.T. trailer. They hope to serve people from a uniquely Christian perspective in disaster ministry, emergency management, humanitarian aid, and public and mental health fields. It is a privilege to be asked by Joy Lee and Jamie Aten from the Humanitarian Disaster Institute to share with the incoming class each year. |
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