wfn.org | ELCA Publisher Raises $105,000 Through Mission Well Project

[NEWS@ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 17, 2004

ELCA Publisher Raises $105,000 Through Mission Well Project
04-171-DE*/JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Augsburg Fortress, the publishing house of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Minneapolis, announced that
more than $105,000 has been raised through its "Mission Well" project to
provide safe drinking water for the people of southern Bangladesh.
     The Mission Well project is part of "Davey and Goliath's Camp
Creation," the ELCA publisher's Vacation Bible School (VBS) series.
Augsburg Fortress worked in cooperation with the ELCA's Division for
Global Mission to facilitate this project, the publisher said in a news
release.
     The initiative is part of a larger well project sponsored by Lutheran
Health Care Bangladesh (LHCB), the ELCA and other church organizations and
agencies to help people dig deep tube wells for their villages.
     "This project has struck a chord with congregations and church
leaders of all denominations throughout the United States and Canada,"
said Beth A. Lewis, Augsburg Fortress president and chief executive
officer. "Through this tremendous response, we will help to bring safe
drinking water to the people of several villages in Bangladesh."
     Mission Well is a service project offered through the 2004 Camp
Creation VBS series.  It provides participants the opportunity to put into
action what they have learned -- that "God calls us to care for all that
God has created," the release said.  VBS students decorate their own
Mission Well and fill it with their offerings to fund the building of new
wells. Offerings have been collected from Camp Creation VBS programs in
the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, the publisher said.
     Through this initiative, wells 800 to 1,000 feet deep are dug into
the ground. Wells dug at such depths avoid arsenic contamination found in
shallower tube wells in Bangladesh, the release said. Using hand labor, a
team of local workers can dig a well in less than a week for about $800 to
$1,000. The project offers workers an opportunity to acquire new skills
they can use for other community development projects, Augsburg Fortress
said.
     LHCB is a non-governmental organization of 33 ELCA congregations and
other interested organizations, foundations and individuals. The LHCB
Consortium works in Bangladesh in partnership with the ELCA, emphasizing
development of community health in its work, the release said. To increase
the health status of the rural people, LHCB is providing basic health
education and increasing the availability of safe water through deep tube
wells.
---
     * Deborah Erickson is marketing communications director for Augsburg
Fortress Publishers, Minneapolis.

     Information about Davey and Goliath's Camp Creation Mission Well
project is available at http://www.augsburgfortress.org on the Web.

     Information about the well project sponsored by Lutheran Health Care
Bangladesh and the ELCA Division for Global Mission is at
http://www.elca.org/dgm/steward/bangladeshwells.html on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news