The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Life With Dignity (LWD) — the ELCA’s partner development organization in Cambodia — convened a three-day conference on”Migration and the Human Trafficking Crisis in Asia: Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership.” The conference was held in August in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Over 60 people from 39 institutions and 14 countries, including Cambodia, participated. The conference aimed to assist the ELCA in developing strategies for policy and implementation with churches and faith-based organizations to address migration and human trafficking issues, and how to work together in the future, in Asia, and across the world.

During the conference, participants affirmed that human trafficking is not a problem experienced by nameless and faceless people, but one that indicts all of us as it thrives by commodifying those who are considered inferior and vulnerable by the prevailing structures and cultures. It was discerned that all faith traditions should uphold the values of justice, equity, and dignity as crucial for the sanctity and integrity of life for all people, especially those who are victims of or are vulnerable to human trafficking.

As a result of the conference, participants pledged a commitment to a partnership through courageous actions of confronting and resisting the forces that cause human trafficking, preventing its occurrence, protecting the vulnerable, and healing and restoring broken lives and relationships. The group further committed to accompanying one another through the values of mutuality, respect, trust, and holding each other accountable.

For more information about the conference, click here. To see the concluding statement from the conference, click here.

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Conversations with Members of Our Saviour, Freeport After Hurricane Dorian

By Thomas L. Weitzel

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas as a category five hurricane, the people of Grand Bahama, and particularly the members of Our Saviours Lutheran Church in Freeport, are still struggling with basic needs like water and power.  They’re also still processing the trauma associated with two days of 185 mph winds and  2o foot storm surges that carried off many a loved one.

“It was horrible – a nightmare,” said Greg Smith, a long-time member of Our Saviours.  “The wind was ferocious. It sounded like a train coming.” The storm damaged Greg’s roof, causing rainwater to pour into his family room. “All we could do was try to keep ahead of it with towels and blankets,” Smith said. “But it just kept coming in. It was so frustrating. And long. I would check the storm’s progress on my cell phone, and find it was moving at 2 mph. Then I’d turn it off to save the battery.  And when I would check again hours later, I would find it was moving at 1 mph! It just went on and on.”

Nearly all the members of Our Saviours experienced property damage of some kind. “We have a lady at the church who lost her car and had to retreat to the third floor of her complex.  Fortunately, people were neighborly enough to take them in.”

Pastor Cliff Lewis – Pastor of Our Saviours – spoke of one member, Ivan Bethel, who lost his entire business to the flooding.  Another member had five feet of water in her home and lost everything.  And yet another member, an attorney with three children, was forced to evacuate and returned to a total loss.  “It was a disaster, to say the least,” said Pastor Lewis.

LOSS OF LIFE

While none of the congregation died, many lost friends and loved ones. Mordine Smith, Greg’s elderly mother and a member of Our Saviours, lost her sister when the waters surged up.  “She clamored up on a rooftop for safety, but lost her balance and fell into the water and was carried away,” Smith reported.  When Greg and his mother shared the news with her sister, who was in cancer treatment in Nassau, she was so overcome that she died two days later.  “So my mother lost two sisters and I’ve lost two aunts in just a couple days,” Smith said.

Janet Albury-Simpson, who was in England at the time of the storm reported that Virginia Mosvold, her daughter Sissel and son in law, George, were rescued from their farm after holding on to the highest point in their home. Everything at the Mosvold farm was washed away, and unfortunately, their right-hand person drowned.

Those water surge stories are repeated again and again by Our Saviours members, with untold numbers of people and children washed away.  “I met a man who told me that nine members of his family were washed away,” said Greg.  “What do you say to that?!  What can you say?!”

The waters came up in a matter of 10 minutes, Gena Granger, another member of Our Saviours said. “We had flooding in areas that have never flooded before.” She described the storm surge coming in from the north, near the airport where if frequently floods.  This time, the storm surge was so high that it went all the way through the downtown and as far south as Sunrise Blvd, the east-west thoroughfare on which the church sits.  That’s about three miles of water over an island that is only five and a half miles wide from north to south.  “It essentially closed down the economy,” said Albury-Simpson.

NO DAMAGE AT THE CHURCH

For all the damage across the island, and for as close as the floodwaters came, there was no damage to the church itself, members reported.

Fortunately, the congregation replaced the roof on their 1967 church sanctuary just three years ago, installing a “hurricane resistant” interlocking metal roof.  “If we hadn’t done that,” said Smith, “it might have been a different story.”

A roof replacement over the offices and classrooms also occurred in 2005 following damage from Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, and that roof held firm as well.

“We’re going to check to see if any pins came out or were loosened” on the new roof, said Pastor Clifford.

A lot of that kind of checking is probably going to be necessary across the island, given the ferocity of two days of 185 mph winds on homes and buildings.  Gena Granger reports cracks in the 4×10 inch beam supporting the roof of her condo.  “Obviously from the roof trying to come off,” she said.

Similarly, all the water damage is creating problems for reconnecting homes to the power grid on the island.  “Every house that was flooded has to be inspected before they can turn the electric back on,” Granger reported.  “We’re talking hundreds of homes.”

NO POWER, NO WATER

As a result, power has only been restored to about half the population of 30,000 residents of Freeport as of Sep. 15, according to the Facebook page for the Grand Bahama Power Company.  Fortunately, that brought most ATMs online, reported Pastor Lewis, even though banks are still only operating on a limited basis because of flooding.

Equally challenging is the restoration of the public water system because of “saltwater intrusion in the water storage tanks,” according to Gena Granger.  “So we can’t drink the water, and we can’t wash with it either – until they give the all-clear.” As of Fri., Sep. 13, only 50% of homes had safe running water, according to the Facebook page for the Bahamas Information Services.

All these challenges mean that it’s going to be a long haul getting the city of Freeport and the East End back together again, commented Pastor Lewis. Fortunately, the port is open to shipping, and the airport is open on a limited basis.  “Commercial flights only, no international flights, and only humanitarian flights from the States.”

For those looking for ways to help, money is the best way to support at this time.  This allows the church to direct support towards what is needed most.  Be cautious of mailing things to the Bahamas. “It will take six months to get here that way.”  Instead, Granger recommends wire transfers to Our Saviours Lutheran Church.  Pastor Lewis similarly suggested sending pre-paid credit or debit cards that the church could give out and that could be used in ATM machines to draw out cash.

Donations may also be made through Lutheran Disaster Response or the Florida-Bahamas Synod Disaster Response.  Both organizations are working directly with Our Saviours to support immediate relief efforts.

Our Saviour Church members sorting and stocking items for distribution in Freeport.

WITH GOD’S HELP

“With God’s help and the help of so many from across the U.S. and the world, we will put it all back together again,” said Pastor Lewis.

On the Sunday following the hurricane, about 30 people gathered at Our Saviour for worship. They began with a hymn and a prayer.  Pastor Lewis gave a short homily referencing all the adversities of the week, yet affirming that “even with the stench of death all around us, God gives us life.”

He asked members the question, “How have you been tested this week?”  That started a conversation that lasted about an hour and a half.  “Even the quiet folks who hardly ever talk spoke out,” said Pastor Lewis.  “We just had to get it out.”

“It was cathartic,” said Smith recalling the service.  “People talked about their experience and what they were feeling.  Then there was communion and more talking afterward.”  That talk included planning for work with the Florida-Bahamas Synod and Lutheran Disaster Response.

Pastor Lewis said the service ended with the singing of “My Life Flows on in Endless Song” (ELW 763), whose refrain ends each verse:

“No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.

Since Christ is Lord of Heaven and Earth, how can I keep from singing.”

Thomas Weitzel is a freelance writer and a former pastor of Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Freeport, Bahamas ( 2004-2006).

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I grew up the daughter of a water and wastewater engineer. On summer vacations and road trips of any length, our family made detours to visit water treatment plants. I met my dad’s colleagues from around the world when they would come for dinner. Their conversations would revolve around things from concern about water rights between countries in the middle-east, to flooding in central Pennsylvania. I think it was by osmosis that I came to know that there is a relationship between human activity and the natural environment and so it is not surprising that I studied natural resource economics in school and ended up as one of the Disaster Response Coordinators in the Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) network. I serve Northeast and Southeast Pennsylvania Synods, on behalf of Liberty Lutheran Services.

Doing this work for over a decade now, it’s only been in the last five years or so that the disaster response community has started to talk about climate change in the daily context of our work. Here in the Northeastern part of the US, according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment, the amount of rain falling in the heaviest 1% of storms has increased 71% from 1958 to 2012. In my daily life, this means a lot of work around flash flood preparedness and response. It means community discussions about the few options available to low-income communities in flood-prone areas. It means talking about upstream development and the impact on communities downstream. It should also mean talking about the impact of human activity on climate, which the scientific community overwhelming agrees exists.

Given our shared interest in climate change, vulnerable people, and the church, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Director in Pennsylvania, Tracey DePasquale, suggested the Climate Reality Project training to me. I looked up the training goals and agenda. I discovered that The Climate Reality Project was founded by Vice President Al Gore, shortly after he wrote the screenplay for the film An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. While the training looked robust, I was a little concerned that there would be political undertones. But just a few days after Tracey approached me, my daughter, a high school sophomore, came home fired up about this old film they watched in social studies, An Inconvenient Truth, and that’s when I decided to attend. Like many at the training, I am motivated by our obligation and caring for my own and all children in generations to come.

The Climate Reality Project training provided me with the latest information on climate change, access to a new network of advocates, and most importantly provided a context to consider the critical role of the church in the face of climate change.

The training I attended was held in Minneapolis MN Aug 2-4, 2019. I approached it with some hope and with some reservation. I wondered what I’d be taught that I couldn’t already find on the internet or through my colleagues. I wondered if there would be a partisan tone. I wondered how a training with 1,200 people attending could have real substance.

Those reservations were eased almost immediately as the conference became immediately relevant given that attendees were seated with others from their same general location on earth. I found myself in Minneapolis seated with others from greater Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, York, and Pittsburgh. After plenary sessions and breakout groups where we had opportunities to learn from people around the world, we would reconvene for meals to talk about how what we learned was relevant to the areas where we live and work together.

Another way the training was implicitly instructional was that it was designed to be a carbon-neutral event. Held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in a large ballroom, the event demonstrated how we can as individuals and organizations set new expectations for each other. Instead of having wait staff refill water and coffee, beverage stations were set up, so that water and coffee were accessible, but not wasted. All food served was vegan. We had delicious and filling meals like black bean meatloaf and falafel salads.

The heart of the training was around learning how to utilize the most up to date slides and information from An Inconvenient Truth in the context of our own lives. The training challenged us to explore how to relate those slides to issues related to justice, indigenous rights, belief systems, spirituality, religion, economic development, and more.

Another key component of the training was the experience of identifying and composing our own climate story. It was amazing to me that a room of 1,200 people could be silent as we were guided through the story writing process by well thought out prompts.

Those completing the training leave with access to a global network of partners in this work, with their own stories to tell, and with the challenge to participate or lead ten related outreach activities over the next year. Outreach activities can include writing letters to the editor, hosting community forums, participating in local environmental fairs, and more.

Working for a Lutheran Social Ministry Organization, and also being a part of the ELCA’s Lutheran Disaster Response program, and being a Christian who happens to be Lutheran, the training was really helpful to me in these ways:

• Having access to tools to share with the Lutheran Disaster Response network for continued efforts related to climate change and disaster
• Being welcomed into a global network of people facing a variety of issues related to climate change, and the opportunity to help each other problem solve
• Discovering new partners in the church, such as leadership from Interfaith Power and Light, who have developed best practices for having discussions around climate change with church groups
• Challenging myself to host two carbon-neutral events this next year

What was most valuable to me coming out of the training was hope. Hope that there are people using creativity and innovation to solve problems related to global emissions; hope in the fact that young people see the future as theirs and calling for bold policy action, and hope that there is still time to act on the information that has been gathered the past half-century. And, in the power and truth of the Resurrection, I was reminded at the event that there is hope and love to face any challenge. Through that lens, the church must be a leader in spirit, action, and partnership as we confront the challenges of climate change.

I am grateful for having had the opportunity to attend this training on behalf of the church.

Julia Menzo is Director of Community Outreach for Liberty Lutheran/Lutheran Congregational Services. She lives in Lansdale Pennsylvania, a town just north of Philadelphia. She serves as the facilitator for the Eastern Region of Lutheran Disaster Response and Co-Chair of SEPA VOAD (Southeastern Pennsylvania Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster).

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Be a part of the response:

Be a part of the response:

Pray

Join us in prayer and partnership, and to help spread the word in your congregation. You can find additional resources for worship here.

Give

We invite you to stand by all the communities impacted by Hurricane Dorian and future hurricanes. Your gifts to Hurricane Response ensure that our church will be able to provide help and hope for those affected by this disaster for years to come.

Connect

To learn more and Stay connected to the latest events and our response to this and other disasters:

• Like Lutheran Disaster Response on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
• Visit our website at LDR.org
• Sign up to receive Lutheran Disaster Response alerts
• To download a PDF version of this situation report, click here.