“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) — Helping the hurting amid disaster
Recent flooding in the greater Baton Rouge, LA area has left local responders looking for outside help. Thousands of homes have been flooded, including several hundred that are owned by LCMS members. The need for volunteers has never been greater!
It's not often that the synod in convention approves something unanimously but this year at convention there was overwhelming support and praise for the work of LCMS Disaster Response. Although when you see the stats it's easy to see why. Take a look at the resolution.
From Mercy Medical Teams providing essential medical care around the globe to serving people in urban and rural settings to comforting victims of disasters here at home, mercy is at the heart of everything we do.
A well maintained disaster response trailer can be deployed after a disaster and provide rapid response right where it’s needed the most.
When you see the news stories of people removing debris, sawing tree limbs, and mucking out houses it is easy to think that you don't have a role to play…
One of the most frequent questions I get is "Can we take our youth group to LERT training?" And my response is always "Certainly, but we can't certify minors." Then I tell them ways to get their youth involved in Disaster Response in their congregation but I always get the same response.
This year has been an especially wet one. New Years brought widespread floods through Missouri, Illinois and all the way down the Mississippi. January, February, and March brought more flooding in…
Last week we talked about the issues of communication that happen in a massive disaster response network like LERT. We also announced our upcoming conference where you can learn all…
One of the most frequent questions we get asked is “How can I connect with OTHER volunteers across the country?” That’s a great question and one I didn’t have a…
KFUO Radio’s Andy Bates hosted a discussion on May 17 about the LCMS Disaster Response campaign to raise funds for Camp Courage supplies. Rev. Ross Johnson, director, LCMS Disaster Response; Rev. Michael Meyer, manager, LCMS Disaster Response; Gail Pawlitz, educator and editor; and Leah S. Sieveking, LCMS Mission Advancement talk about the new Camp Courage resources to serve children affected by disaster.
Have you ever been struck by images of disaster so much that you just wanted to hop in your car and lend a helping hand? You may want to rethink that. Here are three reasons why Self-deploying might be more harmful than helpful
Last week LCMS Disaster Response and Luther Academy led a three day conference in South America for 76 Pastors and Seminarians on how to respond to disasters and minister to people hurting from a wide variety of tragedies.
There are about 14,000 trained volunteers across the United States and about 2,000 more are trained every year. What you might not know is that we train leaders and missionaries around the world to respond mercifully in times of tragedy with the love of Christ.
LCMS Disaster Response’s role at the FORO is to be a subject matter expert in the area of Mercy work and giving a merciful response in times of tragedy.
Over the last couple of years we have discovered two needs. The first need is for our materials to be translated into Spanish. Secondly, we have found a need to train our Spanish speaking churches in the United States and throughout Latin America so that they will have Lutheran Early Response Teams (LERT). We also want to do a better job of responding to disasters that strike Spanish speaking communities across the United States.