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	May 9, 2005 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 29

	Pastor says quilts, prayers well-received
	following Red Lake high-school shootings

	By Paula Schlueter Ross

	Delivering the quilts was a simple gesture, really, but those
unfamiliar with Native American culture might not appreciate its
significance as well as Rev. Richard Latterner, a former LCMS missionary
to several reservations in northern Minnesota.

	Latterner, a Minnesota Chippewa, was born on a reservation just
40 miles from Red Lake, Minn., where a March 21 shooting rampage claimed
10 lives. So when he decided to go to Red Lake to see how he could help
its hurting residents, he took about 60 quilts, handmade by members of
the Lutheran Women's Missionary League.

	Latterner recalled handing one of the quilts to a young American
Indian woman who had lost her cousin in the shootings.

	"She had both arms wrapped around this quilt the entire
afternoon," he said. "She cried and buried her face in this beautiful
labor of love."

	Latterner told her that Lutheran women make the quilts for those
who have experienced "loss and troubles in their lives," and that they
"also send their love and prayers."

	The young woman, he said, "was very touched. In the Ojibwa
tradition, you are honoring a person when you give them a handmade
quilt."

	God, Latterner said, "opened amazing doors to share the Gospel
and His love" in Red Lake and "uses even terrible situations like this
to point people to the cross."

	Latterner has made several visits to Red Lake, in the days right
after the shootings and more recently. On March 28, he and two other
LCMS church workers -- Jack Carlos, director of Christian outreach at
St. Stephanus Lutheran Church in St. Paul, and Rev. Jake Gillard, pastor
of Trinity First Lutheran Church in Minneapolis -- attended a wake at
Red Lake's Native Community Center.

	The trio of Lutherans was "well-received" in Red Lake, which has
no Lutheran church, Latterner said, and the three spent most of the day
"visiting and praying with small groups of people." Many were from the
Twin Cities area, and Latterner said he and his co-ministers left with
"names, addresses, and phone numbers of Native people living in
Minneapolis. Two people called us [later] to visit and keep in touch.
Praise God!"

	The Lutheran pastors led prayer services on "Law and Gospel ...
God's disgust with sin, and His unconditional love for His people," said
Latterner. They also distributed $400 in grocery and gas vouchers -- a
gift from Mount Zion Lutheran Church, Minneapolis -- to families and
their out-of-town guests.

	Part of a $25,000 grant from LCMS World Relief is being used to
assist Red Lake families with food and travel needs, Latterner added.
Members of many of these families work or attend school in the Twin
Cities, nearly 300 miles away, and have limited incomes. The grant also
is enabling LCMS pastors to continue to minister to people there.

	Lutheran Hour Ministries, St. Louis, and two LCMS congregations
in Bloomington and Chanhassen, Minn., have provided outreach materials
and funding.

	The 2 million Native Americans in this country represent a
largely "unreached mission field," Latterner said, and 90 to 95 percent
of them "don't know Jesus as Savior."

	That fact really "hit home" for him on the Red Lake reservation,
he said. Residents in the tight-knit community consider one another
"extended family," he explained, so it has been especially hard for them
to comprehend "one of their own," 16-year-old Jeff Weise, committing a
crime against "family."

	"There are a lot of people who are hurting," Latterner said. "A
lot of people are asking questions like, 'How could God allow this?' "

	"The first tears that were shed were God's tears," Latterner
told them. "He mourns and does not plan these things to happen."

	People were receptive to the Gospel message, he said: "I think
it's amazing how God works when a tragedy like this happens -- the walls
come down ... [the people] open up because of the situation."

	***************************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

	***************************************

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