Offering of appreciation

With the first anniversary of Katrina’s landfall just ahead, the folks at Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Maryland have a great idea. They’re asking churches that have been blessed by the opportunity to serve people and churches along the Gulf — through mission trips, raising funds, prayer connections, etc. — to send letters of appreciation to churches there prior to the anniversary.

Many churches from SEPA have been involved in hurricane recovery. If you’ve been touched by this experience and want to join in this process, read on…

Here’s the full scoop from the folks at Our Shepherd:

Memorandum

To: ELCA Synods and others

From: Pastor Earl Janssen
Pastor Kathy Morris
Our Shepherd Lutheran Church
Severna Park, MD
(Delaware-Maryland Synod, ELCA)

Re: Appreciation for the ministries of the congregations in the gulf coast for 1 year of exceptional care for the whole church.

Our congregation has been positively impacted by the exceptional ministry of Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs, MS. We have sent teams of people to aid in Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts three different times in the past year, and are planning another trip for December.
As a result of the gracious work of the people at Christus Victor, our congregation sees itself as working more in ministry outside the congregation, has increased number of volunteers to agencies and organizations like Habitat for Humanity, International Habitat for Humanity, Lutheran World Relief, and others. We give thanks for the
ministry of Lutheran Disaster Response, and for the many congregations in the Gulf Coast region who have opened their doors to assist volunteers from around the world to provide recovery services. This sentiment is repeated often by those who have spent some time working in the Gulf Coast.

With the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall fast approaching (August 29), we call upon all expressions of the ELCA to join us in expressing gratitude to these congregations. We propose an “offering of letters of appreciation” timed to arrive before the first anniversary of Katrina’s landfall. The letters we send will be from congregations describing the impact of sending volunteers and appreciation for the ministry of hospitality and coordination. Letters from individuals will be solicited to describe the impact of volunteering or sending supplies and money for ministry to happen.

You see, we propose simply to acknowledge and thank these congregations for their service to the whole church and our communities of faith.

We ask you to spread the word through your Synod or areas of responsibility as widely and as quickly as possible. The response we’ve heard over the past few days as word of this invitation is received has been tremendous. It is a simple, yet important thing to express our gratitude to these congregations. We are a grateful people … let’s
communicate that to people who have spent a year focused on this recovery.

Thank you.

Pastor Earl Janssen
Pastor Kathy Morris
Our Shepherd Lutheran Church
Severna Park, MD