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	Aug. 26, 2004 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 63

	Lutherans can help Hurricane Charley victims with funds, service

	By Joe Isenhower Jr.

	As Floridians continue to work at putting their lives back
together in the wake of Hurricane Charley, LCMS district officials there
say that money and volunteers are needed to help those in southern and
central Florida most affected by the Aug. 13 storm.

	"For the immediate future, money is the greatest form of help we
can provide," said David Weidner, director of congregational services
for the Florida-Georgia District. He also indicated that groups of
volunteers would be needed to help clean up from the storm and assist
with rebuilding.

	By Aug. 25, Charley had claimed 26 lives and injured countless
others, with estimates of losses and damage to insured property alone of
at least $7 billion. Of the state's 67 counties, 25 were designated
federal disaster areas.

	Weidner said that although there were no reports that Hurricane
Charley killed or severely injured LCMS Lutherans, members had lost
homes and damage to LCMS congregations' property ranged from "relatively
minor to extensive."

	He said the roofs would "definitely or probably" have to be
replaced at Faith Lutheran Church, Punta Gorda -- where Charley made
landfall with 145-mph winds; the Lutheran Church of the Cross in nearby
Port Charlotte, where there was damage to the parsonage; Peace Valley
Lutheran Church, Wauchula, with water damage in the sanctuary; and
Grace, Arcadia.

	Weidner said there was "major damage" to the fellowship hall at
the Punta Gorda church, with the congregation "looking at the probable
reality of having it torn down."

	Damage from water and trees felled by Charley also was reported
at Lutheran Haven, a retirement community in Oviedo operated by the SELC
District.

	Florida-Georgia District President Gerhard Michael Jr. said that
about 35 of the 185 district congregations were in Charley's path.

	Jim Wells, president and chief executive officer of Tampa-based
Lutheran Services Florida, described that path as "a 20-mile by 225-mile
area with the aftereffects of 20 tornadoes over a six-to-seven-hour
period."

	Michael indicated that the district, LCMS World Relief and Human
Care, Lutheran Disaster Response and LSF have formed a "strategic
partnership" to help with Hurricane Charley recovery efforts.

	Property damage and the death toll were most severe in the
southwest part of the state, but damage was widespread as the storm
headed northeast across the state through Orlando and on into the
Atlantic Ocean at Daytona Beach.

	Although Charley later turned into the Carolinas, its force was
diminished by that time, causing "relatively minor wind and water
damage" as it headed up the Atlantic seaboard, according to Sally
Hiller, mission and ministry executive with the LCMS Southeastern
District.

	Weidner said that LSF is the "contracted service provider" for
Hurricane Charley Relief in Florida, on behalf of Lutheran Disaster
Response, a joint venture of the Missouri Synod and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.

	Wells said the agency is focusing on "getting the needs met of
our congregations, pastors and other church professionals caught in the
aftermath of Hurricane Charley and addressing the needs of the
communities they serve."

	Wells said that LSF has filled two of three coordinator
positions -- in Orlando and Winter Haven -- to direct "long-term
Charley-relief efforts," and that the agency has retained Lutheran
Counseling Services of Orlando to "first provide pastoral care for
pastors and other professional church workers and then to provide care
in general to other care givers."

	He said that counseling is projected to continue over the next
28 months.

	"This is a long-term effort, with many people affected at all
levels of the affected communities," Wells said.

	He said that groups of volunteers are needed for clearing debris
and cleaning property, with 50 such groups already "at least expressing
an interest."

	"There is special concern for addressing the needs of migrant
workers," he said. Because most are undocumented, they are afraid to
apply for government assistance, and most of them live in trailers and
shacks "most vulnerable" to the winds of a hurricane, Wells said.

	Two LCMS ministries -- Messiah Lutheran Church, Tampa, and
Amigos en Cristo, a Hispanic outreach ministry based in Fort Myers --
have received LSF assistance after the storm for their work with
migrants.

	Connie Sikkema, founder and director of Messiah's Migrant
Ministry, handed out much-needed health and hygiene supplies among
migrant families in Wauchula -- a farming community about 90 miles north
of Punta Gorda -- over the Aug. 20-22 weekend. She had plans to return
in weekends to follow, accompanied by a nurse.

	Among LSF-purchased supplies Sikkema is distributing in Wauchula
are diapers, laundry soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and
first-aid kits. She also is distributing insect repellent, diapers, and
"great-big plastic bins" for rainwater.

	"We found three little kids with ringworm," said Sikkema, who
planned to return with supplies to rehydrate infants who were sick from
ingesting tainted water used to mix their formula.

	She said that migrant-worker families there are still living in
storm-ravaged trailers. Of 29 trailers in two parks, she said at least
five trailers are beyond repair and another seven or eight "doubtful."

	"These people have such little hope," Sikkema said. "The only
hope we can offer them is that Jesus is there, and so are we."

	Rev. Bob Selle directs Amigos en Cristo, which distributed $25
Wal-Mart gift certificates worth a total of $5,000. LFS funded that
project, including funding for extra office space for those gathering
intake information, through which those applying for the certificates
explained their need.

	"We're doing what we can," Selle said.

	Amigos Center also was organizing an immigration clinic with the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Service for Aug. 29 at St.
Michael's Lutheran Church, Fort Myers.

	Selle said the purpose of the clinic would be to help those in
the immigrant community who "were already documented but lost their
documentation in Hurricane Charley or who had appointments at
immigration offices in Tampa or Miami that were made impossible because
of Charley."

	Synod President Gerald Kieschnick toured the places most
affected by Hurricane Charley Aug. 21-22, meeting with pastors and
others in places like Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Florida-Georgia's
Michael, who had toured those locations Aug. 15, accompanied Kieschnick,
along with Weidner.

	Kieschnick said that Rev. Ken Redmann, pastor of the Lutheran
Church of the Cross in Port Charlotte, told him had had visited with 70
member families in three days, to "ensure their safety and well-being."

	After surveying the damage at Faith, Punta Gorda, Kieschnick
said its pastor, Rev. Barr Chittick, led the group to an outside
memorial garden, where the winds of the hurricane overturned a heavy
marble marker, but spared a statue of Jesus with his hands outstretched.

	"It was as if Jesus was saying, 'Come unto me all you who labor
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,'" said Kieschnick, citing
Matt. 11:28.

	"The sense of pastoral care and concern on the part of all the
pastors I visited was exemplary," said Kieschnick, who also was in Fort
Myers, Winter Haven, Lake Wales, Plant City, Orlando and Oviedo.

	"Congregations, families and individuals directly affected by
Hurricane Charley are, humanly speaking, heavy laden," Kieschnick said.
"It is my hope and prayer that the physical presence of LCMS national
and district leaders -- bringing words of comfort, prayers of
thanksgiving and intercession, and assurances of tangible assistance in
providing resources necessary to restore property and possessions --
will help lift their burden.

	"My encouragement to the congregations and leaders of the LCMS
is to be generous in responding to the huge and immediate needs created
by the damage and devastation of this hurricane."

	"We hope that Synod congregations and their members can commit
at least $1 million to help those affected by Hurricane Charley in the
name of Christ," said Rev. Matthew Harrison, executive director of LCMS
World Relief/Human Care.

	"The Sept. 11 tragedy really changed the dynamics of disaster
giving," Harrison said.

	"It was so outrageous and troubling that disasters which have
affected people since have not generated either the emotion or response
we would have predicted prior to Sept. 11.

	"With 35 LCMS congregations and their communities affected,"
Harrison said, "we're praying that Charley turns the corner on this
issue, so that we can be as helpful as possible to our brothers and
sisters in Christ and those to whom they minister in Florida."

	Harrison said that LCMS World Relief/Human Care has already
provided some emergency-grant funds for relief work in Florida,
"primarily designated for helping LCMS congregations and their
professional church workers' families who have felt the effects of
Charley, and to enable Synod congregations in Florida to keep reaching
out to their communities that have been affected by this tragedy."

	"These congregations are attending to structural damage as well
as scrambling to address immediate need around them," Harrison said in
an Aug. 19 letter to Synod pastors. "Many people in affected areas live
in poverty -- increasing their vulnerability and need. In serving these
people, our congregations are bearing witness to Christ's love -- and
they need our help."

	Send donations earmarked "Hurricane Charley" to LCMS World
Relief, P.O. Box 66861, St. Louis, MO 63166-9810; call the credit-card
gift line at (888) 930-4438; or go to the online LCMS Mission and
Ministry Giving Catalog at catalog.lcms.org/ <http://catalog.lcms.org/>
and click on "Help Hurricane Victims."

	To volunteer, go to the Lutheran Services Florida Web site,
www.lsfnet.org, <http://www.lsfnet.org,>  and click on "Volunteer" under
"Help Us Serve."

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

	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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