I T ' S   A L L   A B O U T   M E R C Y

Mike Gecan, the first EBC lead organizer.

LCMS World Relief and Human Care focuses on people in

 It was the churches that got the ball

need. These numbers give an idea of lives touched with

rolling in what has become the biggest recon 

Christian love through this ministry during 2001 2002:

struction effort in an American city in the last

25 years,  Gecan said.

   5.8 million people served by Lutheran agencies 

Pivotal to the plan, Gecan says, has

   3,000 communities served by Lutheran agencies

been the Low Income Housing Fund (LIHF)

established by LCMS Human Care Ministries

   125,000 served through Lutheran foster care programs

and the Lutheran Church Extension Fund. In

   78,000 nights of shelter provided Lutheran social ministry organizations

Brooklyn, the LIHF provided $1 million

   $3.2 million in gifts to LCMS World Relief from individual donors to

(interest free) for the construction of

fund 71 self help projects overseas and 67 in the United States

Nehemiah homes. 

 When people raise their own money

   $1.7 million distributed by LCMS World Relief for disaster response in

for a cause they believe in, it's hard for others

the United States 

to dismiss us as simply whiners,  Gecan said.

   $109,608 distributed by LCMS World Relief for disaster response overseas

When out of towners ask proud home 

   1,642 Bible studies and brochures distributed by Older Adult Ministries

owner Cythia Abrahams where she lives, she

asks them if they know the Bible story about

   500 LCMS parish nurses listed with LCMS Health Ministries

the prophet Nehemiah and how a city was

   80 LCMS chaplains and pastoral counselors serving in non church 

rebuilt.  I say my family is living in a blessing

settings (hospitals, nursing homes, police departments)

from God. 

 God's promise is not that this life is going to

Agency lifts up after knockdowns

go well,  Greear said.  But because Christ died for

us, regardless of what happens in this life, we have

A one two punch dealt by Mother Nature and

the hope of eternal life. That's a powerful message

then by man left Rita Ferguson angry and afraid.

that can stand up against all the negative news the

 I didn't know what to do or who to trust, 

doctors often give. 

she said.

First, Ferguson's household was one of

118,000 homes in Houston, Texas, battered last

A home and 

June by Tropical Storm Allison. Torrential rain and

a modern day Bible story

flooding severely damaged the house she shares

with her young son, her sister and her sister's two

To Cythia Abrahams, her three bedroom

children. 

home with yellow siding is more than a house. She

The second blow came when a contractor

calls it the result of a  modern day Bible story. 

 We looked so long for a place we could

afford a place where we could feel safe, where the

children could play outside, where we could pay for

something that belongs to us instead of paying rent

that went up every year,  said Cythia, whose family

includes her husband, Edward, and four children. 

Six years ago, the Abrahams moved from a

cramped apartment to their first house. It's one of

2,800 houses built to date in East Brooklyn, N.Y., as

part of the Nehemiah Plan, which has transformed

blighted areas of crime into stable neighborhoods.

At the helm of this effort are 50 churches of

many faiths and denominations known collectively as

 They knew exactly what to say and what to do,  said Rita Jackson

the East Brooklyn Churches. Two LCMS congrega 

(right) of Dale Peercy. As volunteer coordinators with Lutheran

tions Risen Christ, Brownsville, and St. Peter, East

Disaster Response, they helped Jackson and other Houston 

New York helped found the EBC in 1980, said

residents recover from storm damage last June.

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THE LUTHERAN WITNESS (42)

Photo:World Relief/Human Care