Lutheran World Relief update
Rev. Miguel Gomez-Acosta, Lutheran World Relief’s Rev. Lisa Kipp, Rev. Jacqueline Pagel, and Bishop Deborah Hutterer.
Rev. Lisa Kipp, Senior Manager of Congregational Engagement with Lutheran World Relief (LWR), visited the Office of the Bishop this week and updated us on the rapidly changing situation and response to the crisis in Ukraine.
Read more below about LWR’s pan-Lutheran work or click a link to get more info on Lent resources, mission quilts, the doubling of congregational gifts to the Ukraine crisis, and their hunger challenge as the war disrupts food distribution worldwide.
Rev. Kipp explained how Lutheran World Relief is working in a number of ways to respond to the Ukraine invasion.
Many refugees are without access to finances for a variety of reasons, with no access to their credit cards, banks, and payment services. Direct cash transfers are being provided, with funds coming from a grant from Great Britain, among others. LWR is providing expertise to connect funds to those refugees.
Poland is the destination of many who are fleeing the conflict, and also the nearest safe place to organize. Congregations such as St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Krakow have converted most of their space to become a hostel for refugees, a place of warmth and peace.
Many fled with minimum medication, only enough for a few days or weeks. LWF works to safely connect refugees with needed medicine.
She stressed how crisis work has become more and more cooperative, with organizations unable to completely handle everything, and instead sharing access to resources and expertise. As an example, Lutheran Disaster Response is solely an ELCA organization, while Lutheran World Relief is a pan-Lutheran organization, and both work help organizations like Lutheran World Federation and others in responding to crises around the globe.
Rev. Kipp expects containers of quilts to be shipped to Eastern Europe, and a need to stockpile their warehouse of quilts in the US and other places. Their mission quilt and kit ministry provides hundreds of thousands of quilts.
Kipp also helps coordinate congregational matching among ELCA, LCMC and MIssouri Synod churches. The response grows daily, starting with $100,000 in matching funds and now currently to $422,000.
We are grateful for her work and her time in visiting us, a reminder that God’s love reaches our neighbors in so many ways.
