 The Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) K-9 Comfort Dogs have been invited by Rev. Travis Ferguson, Associate Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church and School, La Mesa, California to comfort families, students, and friends grieving the tragic loss of a parent of four children who attend their school. Many other students in the school have also suffered the loss of someone close to them making this a difficult time for everyone. From Wednesday, October 30 through Saturday, November 2, LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs Jessy (St. Paul’s – Concordia, Missouri) and Lois (First Good Shepherd – Las Vegas, Nevada) and their handlers will comfort students during school chapel service as well as visit each classroom. They will also visit the family, a Junior High Lock-In, and attend the funeral on Saturday. In addition, more than 200,000 people have been evacuated and are displaced due to the Kincade wildfires in Northern California. LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Aaron (St. John’s – Napa, California) is the first to deploy to bring comfort to many of the displaced seeking safe shelter, as well as the first responders risking their life to serve and protect the many communities involved in yet another catastrophic disaster. LCC never goes where we are not invited and the LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry NEVER charges those we serve. We pick up all of our travel, hotel, and meals costs. We also always put boots and paws on the ground within 24 hours (often fewer) from the time we get the invite.
Please help LCC as we bring the Mercy, Compassion, Presence and Proclamation of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering and in need. Together, we can be the Hands, Feet and Presence of Jesus Christ to La Mesa, Northern California, and surrounding communities impacted by both of these tragic events. Please support us by prayer and if you are so moved, help us with travel expenses.  The situation in Haiti is desperate and at this time we can only send money to help our brothers and sisters. Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) continues to work through our Haiti Mission Partners, Ministry in Mission and Mission:Haiti to send emergency funds to Haiti during a current critical humanitarian crisis due to the political unrest. Thanks to your generous donations, LCC was able to send $11,000 in financial support for food to our mission partners. "At this point our donations are going to the Center of Refuge orphanage and Jacmel Lutheran Home in the Jacmel Lutheran Village for food to sustain the orphans and elderly. Widline, the young pregnant Director of the Jacmel Lutheran Home risks her life to travel from her home to the Jacmel Lutheran Home to tend to the elderly," shares Jackie Rychel, President of Ministry in Mission.
This published information is exactly what Ministry in Mission is hearing from their beloved and trusted partners in Haiti.
Please prayerfully consider making a monetary donation to enable Lutheran Church Charities to send emergency funds to Haiti to help provide food for Haitian adults and children. Thirty dollars will buy enough rice, oil, maggi, canned fish, spaghetti, and soup to feed one person two meals a day for three weeks. LCC Haiti mission partners are helping the most nutritionally vulnerable but need financial support to do so. Join LCC as we pray for the protection of the Haitian people and our mission partners, and for peace in Haiti. Your Donations Are Needed for Nebraska Families Still Recovering from Early Spring Flooding10/30/2019
Last week, Kathy O’Day, Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) Director of Disaster Response met with three churches in Nebraska that were, and still are, a beacon of hope to their communities since the extensive flooding occurred.
Project Restore assesses damage, directs construction projects, houses and provides meals for volunteers deployed to Fremont to repair and rebuild homes that were damaged in the flood. Currently they are working on re-insulating many mobile homes, preventing the pipes from freezing in the winter, which would cause more damage and loss of housing for families. Volunteers from six different states served 1,832 hours in Fremont alone, but more help is needed. If you or your church are interested in volunteering for Project Restore visit www.goodshepherdlutheranchurch.org/project-restore-signup.
Good Shepherd wishes to give the 75 families whose homes they helped restore a Thanksgiving food basket and also hopes to provide gifts at Christmas, especially to the families with children. Most of these families are poor and struggling to make ends meet as they try to recover from flood damage. Lutheran Church Charities would like to help Good Shepherd provide food baskets and other basic needs for these families. Please click to donate to LCC Disaster Relief-Nebraska Flooding.  After the flooding, Pastor Anthony Gerber from Trinity Lutheran Church in Fremont and Dawn Gilfry, Top Dog for LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Katie opened the church's doors to serve for a week as a shelter to a large Hispanic community that was forced from their homes and to travelers who were stuck due to closed roads. Pastor Gerber told Kathy of sharing the love of Christ with their “new Trinity family.” The church has continued to assist these families with rent, needed household items and home repairs. He also shared the struggles they are seeing among some of the affected families, such as depression and suicide attempts by both children and adults. The local LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry teams have been serving in the schools to bring comfort and peace to the children on a regular basis. Trinity members have also been volunteering to repair homes and provide volunteer meals through Good Shepherd/Project Restore in Fremont.
Rhonda Harris and Ron Bender, Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) volunteer leaders at Christ Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska expressed concern for the residents of Winslow they had helped. Winslow is a small town with a population of 135 that had 14’ of water throughout. The town will now need to relocate as every home and business is uninhabitable, and the water supply cannot be restored. There is much talk about where they will go and how the homeowners will recoup any of their losses to be able to start their lives over. Kathy shared that it was good to see how the churches in Nebraska are sharing the mercy, compassion, presence and proclamation of Jesus Christ to those suffering and in need.
At the invitation of the Kansas District Disaster Response Coordinator, Donna Williams, eight Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) chainsaw team members from St. John Lutheran Church in Wheaton, Illinois deployed this week to Linwood, Kansas to help their LERT volunteers complete work for a few remaining homeowners still recovering from the EF-4 tornado that struck in June, devastating the towns of Linwood and Bonner Springs. The teams worked with Kansas LERT, Pastor Jason Boetcher from Trinity Family in Faith and Pastor Robert Weinkauf from Risen Savior Lutheran Church.
Many thanks to team leader Marty Johnson, Jim Beutijer, Fran Collier, Palmer and Judy Goodwin, Tom Prickette, Roy Rose and Rich Wren for their hard work and willingness to serve.
LCC never goes where we are not invited. We NEVER charge those we serve. We pick up all of our travel, hotel, and meals costs. We put boots on the ground within 24 hours (often fewer) from the time we get the invite. Kathy O'Day, LCC Director of Disaster Response Leads Basic LERT Training in Nebraska District10/30/2019
 Lutheran Church Charities was invited to present Basic LERT training in the Nebraska District on Saturday October 26, 2019. The training was led by Deaconess Kathy O’Day, LCC Director of Disaster Response and hosted by Christ Lutheran Church LERT in Lincoln, Nebraska.
There were a total of 18 in attendance from several churches in Lincoln and Fremont, Nebraska. All of the volunteers present have assisted through their churches in many different ways since the massive flooding that occurred this spring in their area. It is good to see how the disaster response ministry is continuing to grow in the LCMS with volunteers willing to share the mercy, compassion, presence and proclamation of Jesus Christ in service to those suffering and in need. LCC never charges those we serve. We are able to do that with the support of donors. If you would like to help us, please consider a donation to LCC Disaster Response Fund.
 Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) continues to work through our Haiti Mission Partners, Ministry In Mission and Mission:Haiti to send emergency funds to Haiti during this critical humanitarian crisis due to the current political unrest. So far, LCC was able to send $6000 in financial support for food to our mission partners. The situation in Haiti is desperate and at this time we can only send money to help our brothers and sisters. A recent article published in the New York Times paints an alarming picture of the humanitarian crisis in Haiti. Read the article here. In the words of Helen M. Roenfeldt, Mission Director at Mission:Haiti “the situation in Haiti is becoming a true humanitarian crisis. Many, many people are unable to work, earn money or purchase food… families who rely on school lunches to feed their children, can't send their kids to school and can't afford food because they can't go to work because roads are blocked… the elderly have not eaten for days at a time.”
Please prayerfully consider making a monetary donation to enable Lutheran Church Charities send emergency funds to Haiti to help provide food for Haitian adults and children. Join LCC as we pray for the protection of the Haitian people and our mission partners, and for peace in Haiti.  |
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