News R
By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service
ELCA responds to floods in Central America
ain and more rain. At presstime, five Central American countries and Mexico were starting the recov- ery process following more than 10 days of torrential rains that began Oct. 10. Resultant flooding and mudslides caused more than 100 deaths in the region and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
U.N. officials placed the num-
bers of affected at 300,000 in El Salvador, 175,000 in Guatemala, 134,000 in Nicaragua, 92,000 in Mexico, 55,000 in Honduras, and 1,000 in Costa Rica. The ELCA is working with local partners to provide clean water, food, shelter and long-term help. So far, ELCA members have provided $75,000 for the relief efforts of the Lutheran World Federation and Sal- vadoran Lutheran Church in El Sal- vador, $23,000 for efforts of ELCA companion churches in Guatemala and Nicaragua, and $20,000 for immediate humanitarian response in Honduras.
Salvadoran Lutheran Church Bishop Medardo Gomez said pastors are working “under con- straints and risks, putting them- selves in danger to save others, their people and the people from our communities.”
In El Salvador, where 86.6 inches of rain fell, 15,000 people are living in shelters, including one in the Cara Sucia area run by the Salvadoran church. Stephen Deal, ELCA regional representative for Central America, said El Salvador received more rain in 10 days than during Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Rainfall amounts exceed anything recorded in the
8 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
country for the past 50 years. The LWF (the ELCA is a mem-
ber) is distributing emergency food and hygiene kits to nearly 750 fam- ilies in metropolitan El Salvador and the area along the Rio Lempa. But the harvest is ruined. At the beginning of November, maize and bean crops across the region were under water. That not only means not enough food this season but too few seeds when farmers plant in 2012. Victoria Cortez, bishop of the Nicaraguan Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope, said pastors “are at the front of providing support to refugees in Aquespalapa and in El Bonete.” A team from the church had to wait 10 days for the chest- deep water to go down before they could access Aquespalapa. Horacio Castillo, president of
the Augustinian Lutheran Church in Guatemala, said the rains and flooding “have battered many com- munities and thousands of people are affected, especially those who live in poverty. Many are home- less. Those who make a living as farmers depend on the fruit of the soil for their subsistence and their hopes for a good harvest have been destroyed.”
To help: Pray, give at www.elca. org/disaster, call 800-638-3522, or send checks (write “Central American Flooding” on the memo line) to ELCA Disaster Response, 39330 Treasury Center, Chicago, IL 60694-9300.
One hundred percent of gifts
will be used to support immediate and long-term disaster response in Central America.
Youth event gathers speed Online registration for the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering, which opened in October, reached 28,214 at presstime. Registration for the July 18-22 gathering in New Orleans closes May 26. Teenagers going into ninth through 12th grades or who have just graduated (by event time) may register as part of a congre- gational group (
www.ELCA.org/ ELCA/
Youth-Gathering.aspx). In addition to mass gatherings in the Superdome, community life activi- ties and community-based justice projects, participants will engage in interactive learning called “Practice Peacemaking.” Leadership events for both definitely abled and multi- cultural youth are July 16-18.
Murdoch expands reach HarperCollins Publishers agreed Oct. 31 to buy Christian publisher Thomas Nelson for an undisclosed amount. HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., will become the largest Christian publisher in the U.S. HarperCollins already owns spirituality imprint HarperOne and purchased Zonder- van in 1998. Founded in 1798 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thomas Nel- son was publicly traded from 1961 to 2006. It was sold in 2006 for $473 million, becoming a privately held company.
Quote
There’s shared DNA between faith and humor. Both are attempts to deal with fundamental human anxiety and things you can’t con- trol. That’s why so many rabbis and priests walk into a bar at the beginning of jokes. Laughing gets
you past the anxiety. Liel Leibovitz, writer of the “Blessed Week Ever” column in the Jewish magazine Tablet, quoted in USA Today about the intersection of religion and laughter.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52