Lutheran Disaster Response

Monday night Cyclone Giovanna made landfall on the east coast of Madagascar with winds upwards of 120 mph. Over the next two days it dumped up to one foot of rain, with the hardest hit area being just east of Madagascar’s capitol, Antananarivo. The storm led to 19 deaths, nearly 11,000 people displaced and almost 5,000 damaged or destroyed homes. In the hard-hit district of Brickaville 88% of the schools were damaged. The storm moved past the island country on Thursday but there are fears it may double back and hit the southern part of the country.

Madagascar is home to one of the largest Lutheran churches in the world, the Malagasy Lutheran Church, with a population around 3 million members. As this church and the remainder of the country start the work of recovery and rebuilding please keep them in prayer, that God may calm the waters and winds and bring them peace.

To learn how the ELCA accompanies the Malagasy Lutheran Church see the Global Mission page on Madagascar

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