A new feature story from the Lutheran World Federation looks at the increasing number of South Sudanese and Sudanese who are ending up at Kakuma refugee camp in northwesetern Kenya. For some this is a return trip after they left the camp years ago to move home to Sudan and the new country of South Sudan. Yet violence on the border of the two countries and internally with South Sudan have led them to flee for safer areas.

The situation is also heightened because Kakuma has also been taking overflow Somali refugees from the overcrowded Dadaab camp on the Kenya-Somilia border. This has led to a situation in Kakuma where overcrowding and processing have also become problems. Read the report from Rose Karimi, LWF gender equity and human rights officer at Kakuma camp, to learn more about the situation and the work of the Lutheran World Federation and ACT Alliance in the camp.

Back Again at the Reception Center

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Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response allow the church to respond globally in times of need. Donate now.

Sarah Dreier is the Legislative Representative for International Policy, a position shared jointly between the ELCA Washington Office and the Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations. She reflects upon her recent trip to South Sudan and suggests how you can get involved.

Resilience amidst uncertainty: Lessons from South Sudan

“But what do you do to cope?” I asked my new friend, Anne, who coordinates Lutheran World Federation refugee programming in Kenya and lived in the Dadaab refugee camp for several years.

Anne looked up at me with a sparkle in her eye.

“In Dadaab, we dance. Every night, we dance.”

I saw this same resilience thriving across South Sudan, amidst the conflict, poverty, and desperate need for development – thriving over the daily trials. It was in the young woman, gracefully carrying gallons of water overhead as she strolled down Bor’s dusty, dirt road. I saw it in a local performance troupe, dancing and singing under Juba’s scorching afternoon sun. It was in Jonglei State’s tribal leaders as they returned once again to try to negotiate a peaceful resolution to their tribal conflicts that have taken so many lives this year. I felt from my fellow worshipers in the vibrant, packed Cathedral in Juba late Sunday morning and into Sunday afternoon. And I heard it in the powerful voice of South Sudan’s Minister of Labour as she commanded international aid agencies to hire more South Sudanese employees.

This is a resilience that the South Sudanese carry along with their looming memories of incomprehensible turmoil and their expectations for future uncertainty. I learned that one local development colleague who is working tirelessly to strengthen South Sudanese agricultural capacities while addressing the daily realities of malaria, poverty-based hunger, and conflict, had been kidnapped as a small boy to become a child soldier. Another young man had fled to a Ugandan refugee camp as a baby and returned to his country—on foot with his wife and two young children—only last year, when South Sudan became independent.

“How long did it take you to walk back?” I asked.

“Three or four days, only. But for you, it would take much longer,” he said with a grin.

It is hard for me to comprehend the daily challenges and insecurities the South Sudanese face. The tribes in Jonglei State just last week arrived at a delicate peace agreement to end violence, cattle raiding, and child abductions amongst them and have begun an equally precarious disarmament process focused (in part) on retrieving weapons from youth. South Sudan’s escalating war with Sudan (driven in large part by oil) has absorbed precious state resources away from development, forcing South Sudanese to live with unpaved dirt roads, insufficient education, bare-minimum health care services, and little capacity to farm their nutrient-rich land. Meanwhile, South Sudanese and other Christians living in the north face increased persecution and those living in the border regions live under the constant threat of random attack or starvation. But through it all, the South Sudanese remain resilient, wise, and capable.

Yet U.S. policies and rhetoric do not reflect the South Sudanese’ promising capacity to thrive and flourish—by growing their own food, for example—which is tragically thwarted by a severe lack of resources.

Americans should shift our narrative—and the United States government its development policies—in South Sudan, away from assumptions of despair, to reflect this Sudanese capacity for resilience.

Tell your Representative to join the 14 Republicans and 62 Democrats who support HR 4169, the Sudan Peace, Security, and Accountability Act of 2012, and to support the bill’s underlying commitment to sustainable peace and development by supplementing U.S. food assistance with robust funding to U.S. programs that invest in agricultural development and small-scale farming in South Sudan and around the world.

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For more information check out the e-Advocacy Alert.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the deadliest tornado in the last 60 years that tore through Joplin, Missouri. 160 people were killed, many more were left injured and homeless. Main stays of the community were destroyed, like the local high school and Peace Lutheran Church (ELCA).

In the year since there have been many stories of Lutherans from Joplin and across the country coming together to respond. Lutheran Disaster Response, the domestic arm of ELCA Disaster Response, has been working through Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri to coordinate our on the ground response. Part of this work has been to work wit the Long Term Recovery Committee to help address the unmet needs and case management of those affected by the tornado. Lutheran Disaster Response was also able to bring in trainers to help the committee lay the groundwork for how to move forward.

Immanuel Lutheran Church and Martin Luther Lutheran School, both Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, have given of their resources and time to house and feed volunteers. The school also served as the location for a Camp Noah, a program created by Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota, which helps children affected by natural disasters to deal with the trauma. The camp was so successful that four more camps are schedule for this summer as well as a God’s Can Do Kids program for the fall.

Amidst all of this work within the local community there have also been volunteers from around the country showing up to help, lending a day, a week, a professional skill, whatever they had. To give a sense of what these groups experience and as a reminder that Joplin is not forgotten I would like to share a reflection from Kelli Joseph who travelled with a group to volunteer in Joplin:

St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE sent a group of 13 individuals to assist in Joplin from April 23 – April 29. The group had a variety of opportunities to serve while in Joplin. Some of these opportunities were bigger and some seemed smaller. The construction manager (Trent) was organized, informed and wonderful to work with. There are no unimportant jobs, no unimportant people, no unimportant acts of kindness. The group experienced loving the people they served when 1) they met the owner of the first Habitat home we worked on, 2) they served the victims of the tornado when we dispensed clothing, cleaning supplies and food, 3) the mothers came to pick up the children they cared for during Stepping Out, 4) as well as meeting a man from NE whose wife was in a nursing home and had worked for Habitat in his past. The group saw God each day they worked – in everything from the fun food snacks that were provided for lunch, to the care that the people at Abundant Life gave to us and the tornado survivors at Stepping Out, to having a different type of work each day so none of our muscles were overtired, to the weather that was without rain until the morning they left.

The experience for this group has created an awareness of our needs versus wants and an appreciation for all God has given us. The faith and determination of the people in Joplin is amazing and has been such an inspiration to our group. They have learned that with God’s help they can do things they never thought possible. The group returned to Omaha humbled, thankful, tired, inspired – but most of all they were blessed by the people in Joplin, the people they went to serve.

So today we stand in remembrance with the people of Joplin to both remember the tragic affect nature can have in our lives and give thanks for the role the church can play in mending lives and livelihoods.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities in Joplin and Missouri check out the LDR volunteer page.

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Gifts to ELCA Disaster Response allow the church to respond at home and globally in times of need. Donate now.

Under the title “Praise on the Parking Lot,” Peace Lutheran Church of Joplin, MO included a special event with their regular worship service this morning. The congregation returned to their now empty lot at the corner of Wisconsin Ave. and 20th Street in Joplin. Friends and neighbors joined them under a tent that was erected on the former parking lot. It was on this same parking lot that the congregation held worship the Sunday following the tragic tornado which destroyed their church building, and much of Joplin, May 22, 2011. This service was an opportunity to remember, and lament, the past while continuing to focus on the future. As a sign of this focus the congregation hosted a picnic style lunch open to all who attended after the service.

This seeming simple, yet extremely powerful, act of worship and rememberance is truly the heart of ELCA Disaster Response. It is the church standing in the face and aftermath of disaster to proclaim that though we may be shaken by tragic acts of nature our faith holds us firm and sustains us. It is truly an act of the church continuing to be church in the midst of disaster.

Let us add our prayers of rememberance and thanksgiving to those of Peace. And this Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the tornado, let us again pray, that the commuinity of Peace and the people of Joplin know they and their situation are not forgotten.

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ABOUT PEACE LUTHERAN: In the months since the tornado destroyed their building, the congregation of Peace Lutheran has been enjoying the welcoming hospitality of Bethany Presbyterian Church at Main and 20th which shares its office and worship space. Congregational workshops have been held in which values, beliefs and mission have been discussed and defined. A building committee is now actively engaged in the work of determining where Peace will build a new facility and what shape that facility will take. The goal is to take time now to discern where God is leading Peace for the future, for the sake of the Gospel.

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Gifts to ELCA Disaster Response allow the church to respond at home and globally in times of need. Donate now.

Just read a nice article in the Clovis News Journal out of Clovis, NM about Pastor Bonita Knox and Trinity Lutheran (ELCA). It’s a quick overview of the congregations ministry to gather food and loose change during the year to support those in need locally, nationally and internationally. One of the ways they do so is through supporting Lutheran Disaster Response.

It is a great example and reminder that even when there is nothing in the headlines the needs of those affected by disaster continue to be present. May God continue to bless Pastor Knox and this good ministry of Trinity Lutheran, where they work to serve the needs of all in need.

You can read the whole article here.

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Gifts to ELCA Disaster Response allow the church to respond at home and globally in times of need. Donate now.

The Joplin Globe had a great article today on Joplin recovery effort following the May 22, 2011 tornado that hit the city. The topic of the article is “the warehouse” an aptly named, well, warehouse that means more to its local community than the unassuming name implies. The warehouse is the staging ground for much of the recovery efforts carried out in Joplin, including that of Lutheran Disaster Response.

Through the doors of this building have walked thousands of volunteers from all over the country who have come to help. Also highlighted is Immanuel Lutheran Church (LCMS) that was a major actor, along with Martin Luther School, in early and continuing efforts in feeding, housing and organizing volunteers.

It’s a great read on how in times of need being the hands and feet of our corporate body is a calling for all who bear the name of Christ. Check out the full article Volunteers Focus on Rebuilding, not Theology.

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Gifts to ELCA Disaster Response allow the church to respond at home and globally in times of need. Donate now.