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for the most up-to-date ELCA news - go to www.elca.org
Lutheran World Relief is supporting humanitarian assistance for people driven from their homes by the ongoing conflict between Georgia and Russia. Find out more at www.lwr.org
Due to the increased intensity of humanitarian crises around the world, Lutheran World Relief has received several requests for quilts, layettes, and health, school and sewing kits. Upcoming collections can be found online at www.lwr.org/parish/ingathering.asp .For those not able to quilt or assemble quilts themselves, making a financial gift to the Project Comfort Fund is another way to be involved in this much-needed ministry to the hurting world." Giving information for the Project Comfort Fund is online at http://lwr.org/parish/comfort.asp . For more information visit www.lwr.org .
More than 2,000 women were in Salt Lake City July 10-13 for the Seventh Triennial Gathering of Women of the ELCA. The event theme, "Come to the Waters," focused on the celebration of Baptism through Bible study, speakers, workshops, community service and worship. Find out more.
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Northern Illinois Synod (NIS) is offering workshops as part of its efforts with Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center (LOMC), Oregon, Ill., to support the synod's Green Team and raise environmental awareness in its congregations. Read more...
Fast Facts:
- 854 million people in the world are hungry.
- 6.55 billion people inhabit the earth, and nearly 13 percent go hungry.
- 10.9 percent of U.S. households experience hunger or the risk of hunger.
- 1 in 10 children dies before age 5 in developing nations - hunger being a primary cause.
(1 in 165/ U.S.)
- 1 percent of the world (ages 15-49) is HIV prevalent.
- In 2007, an average of 26.5 million people per month utilized the Food Stamp Program. 7.1 percent of U.S. households are
at risk of hunger.35.5 million people in the U.S. experience hunger or the risk of hunger.Each day, 16,000 children die from hunger or preventable diseases: 1 child every 5.4 seconds.In Sub-Saharan Africa, 25.8 million people live with HIV/AIDS -- 64% of the world's 40.3 million cases.More than 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day.
- In the developing world, 20 million low-birth-weight babies are born each year. They are at risk of dying in infancy or suffering lifelong disabilities.
A chartered bus is being organized to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Women of the ELCA's Triennial Gathering. The bus will depart July 7 from Madison, Janesville, Rockford, Rochelle, Mendota and Peru and will arrive in Salt Lake City on July 9. Contact Christina Barnickel, Northern Illinois Synodical Women's Organization Triennial Gathering Promoter at cbarnickel@gmail.com or 815-497-3862
You can be proud to be a member of the ELCA! Look at some of the ministries YOU make possible
through your congregation, synod, and churchwide
organization. When you hear the stories you will
proudly say, "Wow, the ELCA is really doing a lot!"
Find out more at www.elca.org .
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Working together as the whole Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, we are making Christ
known in ways that no individual or congregation
could do alone. We are 5 million members in 10,800
congregations across 65 synods in nine regions
across the United States and Caribbean. We are one
of 136 member churches that make up the Lutheran
World Federation. We are third largest Lutheran
church in the world.
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You support nearly 300 ELCA
missionaries and volunteers in 47 countries. For
example, you support the work of medical
missionaries in Papua New Guinea. A church-supported
hospital there provides affordable care to poor,
rural patients. Recently one 10-year-old girl's life
was saved. After a poisonous snakebite, her family
rushed her to the hospital for the lifesaving
antivenom. At $385 a dose, they could never have
afforded it. But thanks to your support, they paid
only $2.
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You train church leaders from
around the world. Thanks to the generosity of members
like you, the ELCA provides international scholarships
to future leaders of other countries. For example, after
completing a Master's Degree in Old Testament at Trinity
Lutheran Seminary, Gideon Maghina was elected bishop of
the central diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Tanzania.
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You have educated more than 500
pastors, doctors, health workers, teachers and
agricultural workers in Lutheran churches around the
globe. You have trained 77 leaders in Tanzania, 33 in
Namibia, 31 in India, 28 in Madagascar, 25 in Ethiopia
and 16 in Brazil. After these leaders study at ELCA
colleges and seminaries, they return to their homelands
to bring the Gospel to life.
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You help plant new congregations
at home, too. 358 ELCA congregations have been organized
since 1988. Did you know that more than half of new
starts are in ethnic specific and multicultural
contexts? Plus, research shows that fast-growing
congregations have a higher percentage of people who are
newer to the faith—people who began worshiping within
the last five years—than average congregations. Working
closely with synods across the ELCA, you are helping
start new congregations across the country, especially
in fast-growing areas.
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You support a vast education
network of
28 colleges and universities,
170 Lutheran campus ministries,
20 high schools 160 elementary schools,
1,800 early childhood education centers
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Your special support of the
ELCA World Hunger Appeal makes a difference. For
example, in rural Pennsylvania, folks with limited
incomes are growing their own food. Even kids are
learning about gardening and nutrition. They sell
some of what they grow at a nearby farmers' market.
Growing your own food encourages healthier eating.
Learning a new skill encourages self-reliance.
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You help people break out of
the cycle of poverty and hunger. Your gifts to the
Hunger Appeal make a world of difference to this
village in Haiti. You helped provide a new school,
six coffee cooperatives, hearty breeding pigs and
small businesses that mean a brighter future for
these families. This is only one example of how the
ELCA responds to hunger by providing relief,
development, education and advocacy—all outside the
church's regular budget. This ministry is made
possible through extra-mile giving to the ELCA World
Hunger Appeal.
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You are making a difference
in the world, and you can feel good about that.
Thank you for your generosity through your regular
and designated giving to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America. These stories illustrate the
ministries YOU make possible through your
congregation, synod and churchwide organization. As
you give your regular offering, remember that it is
not just money—it is possibility!
Are you an interim pastor?
Check out the Interim Ministry Association ELCA.
Peace Not Walls is the
campaign of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
to learn, pray and act for peace with justice in the Holy Land.
The 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted this strategy to promote a peaceful solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to call for a halt to
construction of the separation barrier and its removal
from Palestinian land. [More
at FAQs].
They have extensive education resources about the
situation in the Holy Land for use in congregations.
The Inter-Lutheran Coordinating Committee is proud to
introduce a special resource to assist pastoral care
givers provide ministry among returning veterans. Caring Connections http://caringconnectionsonline.org is an online
journal the Committee publishes that presents topics of
interest in the field of pastoral care. To subscribe to Caring Connections,
visit http://tinyurl.com/3aeo3r
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