ELCA Disaster Response

Refugees at Sousha refugee camp getting water.

“We’re paying, of course. And our friends and family back home.”

“How long will you continue?”

“For as long as the money lasts.”

This is an exceprt from a conversation with Aomed Aowel, an ordinary Tunisian who left his home in the capital city of Tunis to drive (if my estimates are correct) around 7 hours to bring food and water to refugees crossing the border from Libya. And as the days have progressed he, his friends and others Tunisians they have recruited, have been bringing supplies of food and water to help meet the basic needs of people coming into Sousha camp.

“We’re not heroes. We’re just helping our brothers.” This is the response he gives to what they are doing. Heroes or not they are helping to do God’s work and for that we give thanks.

To read more about Aomed’s story as well as the work being done by the ACT Alliance read their update Solidarity without borders.

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

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As the situation in Egypt begins to find some stability, members of the ELCA’s Global Mission office in conjunction with our companions have determined that things have calmed enough for missionary personnel to return to their work in Egypt. Over the next few weeks the six missionaries will return are:

• Rev. Peter Johnson, Erin Odgers, seminary intern Paul Schick and his wife, Stephanie, who will return to their work at St Andrew’s Lutheran Church of Cairo and with the St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS).
• Rev. Dr. Mark and Linda Nygard, who will return to their work at the Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Please keep them and their families in your prayers as they begin to find how God will continue to use them in this new reality.

To learn more:

• ELCA News Release on their return
• information on the ELCA’s engagement in Egypt.

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

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ACT team setting up camps on Libya-Tunisia border. Photo: ACT/Church of Sweden/Sarah Harrison

A team comprised of staff from ACT member organisations Norwegian Church Aid, FinnChurchAid, the Lutheran World Federation and the Church of Sweden, has been working at full capacity on the Libyan-Tunisian border to assess and prepare for the possible humanitarian fallout of the situation in Libya. They are currently stationed at Sousha Refugee camp, located on the Tunisian side of the border. This camp has a current population of around 15,000 and is well maintained but the fear is that with unconfirmed reports of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands living in camps on the Libyan side of the border camps like this could be overrun if a violence in Libya continues.

In preparation for the worst the staff and the camp are attempting to expand the camp’s facilities for the potential new refugees. The hope is that with these expanded resources the camp could hopefully take in up to 100,000 refugees.

As the situation and the violence continues to worsen the ACT team will continue to assess what type of response or appeal should to enacted to meet the needs of those in need. Please keep these people, their work and those who they work on behalf of in your prayers. May God’s charitable and ever-giving spirit be amongst them in their times of need.

Read the full report.

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

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On February 24 Dr. William F. Vendley, Secretary General for Religions for Peace*, released a statement calling for the violence in Libya to stop. The statement calls on the government of Libya to cease in attacking its own citizens and for the members of the Libyan army to disobey orders to attack their fellow country men and women with warplanes. Also called for members of the international community to take responsible and legal action to ensure the full rights and safety of the Libyan people.

Read the full statment.

* Tracing it’s roots back to 1961, Religions for Peace is the largest international coalition of representatives from the world’s great religions dedicated to promoting peace. It maintains the goal of respecting religious differences while celebrating our common humanity and is active on every continent and in some of the most troubled areas of the world, creating multi-religious partnerships to confront our most dire issues: stopping war, ending poverty, and protecting the earth.

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

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Tensions continue to rise in Egypt following the public cry for Egyptian President Mubarak to resign and the subsequent unrest as the pro-Mubarak supporters clash with protestors. In response the US State Department has called for all US personnel to evacuate the country.

Amidst our prayers for a just and peaceful resolution to this troubled time in the life of the Egyptian people, we raise a call of thanksgiving that all ten of the ELCA deployed staff working in Egypt have safely been evacuated. There two-day long journey took them from Egypt to Istanbul and finally to St. Paul, Minnestota, where they are thankful to be safe but eagerly await the opportunity to return to their work and the ministry partners they left behind.

To learn more about the missionaries and their situation, read the ELCA Missionary Blog Hand in Hand.

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Our prayers and concerns for the situation in Egypt range from concern for our missionaries, our companions, colleagues, and friends. The ELCA has a long history of engagement in Cairo, sending mission personnel, supporting congregations and partnering in development work. St. Andrew’s Refugee Services has been a program that has received long support from World Hunger funds and deployed mission personnel, interns and volunteers from the ELCA. The center provides a safe haven, educational opportunities, legal assistance and a community to refugees living in Cairo from throughout Eastern Africa and the Middle East.

The location of St. Andrew’s Refugee Services is in the compound of the St. Andrew’s United Church of Cairo in the heart of Cairo. I am linking here a video produced by the congregational president of St. Andrew’s United Church of Cairo, Iain, of damage inflicted on the St. Andrew’s compound by looters:

The video dramatically shows how close the compound is to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the political demonstrations and conflicts in Cairo. The video is publicly available and can be used in a variety of ways to illustrate the insecurity faced by all in Egypt. Above all, this video brings to our minds the insecurity of the refugee population served by St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, as the services on which those communities depend have been disrupted by the violence and chaos that has engulfed Egypt for the past week.

We should be specific to note that this video does not in any way depict anti-Christian activity. The compound was not breached because it contains a church or a Christian ministry. The religious symbols of the church were not desecrated in any way.

Thanks, to all of you, for your continued prayers for those in Egypt.  ~Megan

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At least 38 people have been reported killed in twin explosions at stations on Moscow’s metro rail system, reports Al Jazeera.  The first blast took place at the Lubyanka station in the center of the city.  A spokeswoman for Russia’s emergencies ministry, told the news sources; “The blast hit the second carriage of a metro train that stopped at Lubyanka, at 07:56 (03:56 GMT).”  The headquarters of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the Soviet-era KGB, is located just above Lubyanka station.

A second blast followed at Park Kultury in the southwest of the city.  Moscow authorities believe that the explosions were carried out by two female suicide bombers wearing explosive belts.

ELCA Global Mission has had a long standing relationship with the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC), an international, interdenominational Christian ministry serving the English-speaking community of Moscow. The Chaplaincy was established in 1962 by the National Council of Churches of Christ of the U.S.A. and today has many social ministries serving vulnerable groups in Moscow including refugees, students, elderly and the poor. ELCA Global Mission currently supports the work of MPC soup kitchens, serving more than 200 people a day, five days a week.

Rev. Robert Bronkema, chaplain at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, sent the following message early this morning:

We just got news of the bombing on the metro subways stations. So far we have not received any notice of MPC members who have been affected by the blasts but have not been able to contact a number of them. Please keep MPC in your prayers during this time and especially all of the bombing victims and their families.

The blasts occurred on the red line which is the line that we use fairly much on a daily basis. It is also the line where the foreign student university is located and I know of one group of students who were on the line during the blast, but quite a ways away from the actual blast.

We continue to try to reach all of our community. We had to close one of our Soup Kitchens for the day, Kuznetsky Most, which was exactly at the station where the first bomb went off. All the other ministries are running.

May we continue to hold our brothers and sister in Russia in our Holy Week prayers. We pray for those who have died and been wounded. We pray for families and care givers. We pray that we may all turn away from violence and respect the dignity of the other.

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