“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) — Helping the hurting amid disaster

Unanimous Support for Disaster Response!

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.

I’m Too Old To Be a Volunteer

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…

Chainsaws Aren’t For Children

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.

Continuing Discussion in Disaster Response

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…

KFUO Audio: LCMS Disaster Response’s Camp Courage resources

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.

Why Not Just Self-Deploy Into a 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

Big Things are Happening in Latin America

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 in Hispanic Communities

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.

LERT Trained and Thrown Into the Fire

This tornado struck just 3 days after the local LERT training on March 12th. The congregation saw a need, hosted the training and became certified for disaster preparedness. No one knew at the time that they themselves would hear the tornado sirens just a few days later. Because the team was trained beforehand, they knew what to do and responded to their community.