Kim and Angelia, Volunteers with LCMS MMT, at Dinner

Maggie Karner talks with Dr. Lautenschlager

To Jacmel Haiti Aboard A Cessna 208B Caravan

We landed in Santo Domingo around 1 PM from Miami today. Once on the ground we discovered that Rev. Harrison's bag along with a box of medical supplies (plus the tent that didn't make it to Miami) did not arrive in the Dominican Republic with us. After retreiving the luggage that accompanied us, we made our way through customs, which was very helpful due to the fact that we were traveling to Haiti (although the Mercy Medical Team's experience was different since they had difficulties bringing medical supplies into the D.R.). We made our way to the information counter to contact Tradewind Aviation, LLC. We then went with an airport security person to get our luggage rescreened, etc. to enter into Haiti.

The Mercy Medical Team is safely on the ground and has begun to set up the field clinic.

Currently, we are flying at about 10,000 feet above the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In fact, we just recently crossed the border into Haiti. The pilots informed us that the descent would be rather steep and fast due to the terrain. The experience is similar to when we flew over Madagascar a few years ago.

There was some turbulance flying through the clouds over the plateau but nothing too exciting. We are approaching Jacmel, Haiti. The cliffs along the coast are rather steep; the photos cannot due justice to the view.

We made it safely to Jacmel. Canadian troops have secured the airport in Jacmel.

Besides the pilots, photos include Matthew Harrison, Al Collver, Carlos Hernandez, Glenn Merritt, John Lautenschlager, and John Edson (vice-chair of the Board for Human Care Ministry).

Focused on the Cross

Williamson looking at the crucifix at First Lutheran Church in Jacmel.

Miami International Security and Helpful Employees

Well, every trip is an adventure. We arrived at Miami International 2 hours before our flight, after catching a few hours of sleep. (We got into Miami at 1 am from Minneapolis with only one lost bag and a lost tent for Haiti. Still don't know where that is. Maybe Delta will find it). Once at the airport, we checked in only to find an extremely long line to check baggage. Took us almost an hour to get through the baggage line. However, once at the counter, we were informed that it was 5 minutes too late to make the flight. The clerk at the counter reacted to two items on my person: 1) my clerical collar, and 2) the WR-HC ID pictured above. Next thing you know, she quickly checked out bags and had us follow her to the TSA baggage check point. Then she got us to the front of the security line, which no doubt would've taken almost another hour to get through. The TSA agents were also very helpful. Thanks to all who helped us make the flight. So we're on the plane and off to Santo Domingo. From there we fly to Jacmel, Haiti. We heard that the Mercy Medical Team (MMT) is at the airport in Santiago and preparing to leave. We'll update as we are able . . . Hopefully, the spammer is done.

In Honor of the Mercy Journeys Hacker

The Jimani Story Continues to be Told

Here is a video on the last day at Jimani. Danelle Putnam is an LCMS Missionary in the Dominican. Kisaires is a Dominican who works for the mission (and has a university degree in psychology). These two fantastic women gave selflessly and provided food and anything else needed for the teams of U.S. LCMS and Dominican docs and nurses as they saved life after life. 

I'm honored to know both of these special people.

Matt Harrison

Carlos Hernandez on Events in Jimani

I shot this video last week while our team was just about ready to leave the hospital in Jimani.

Pastor H. 

Siemon-Netto on "A Little Book on Joy"

Our ominous times seem to confirm day after day Luther’s earthy observations about the fetid character of pusillanimity. Thus there could not be a more propitious moment for the delicacies on the rich Trinitarian menu of joy offered up by Matthew Harrison. In this wonderful narrative he reminds us that the Greek words for joy and grace used in the Bible are etymological siblings. This is an enchanting little book that makes us smile from page to page, and is wholesome balm for souls succumbing to faintheartedness.

Uwe Siemon-Netto Ph.D., D.Litt.,

Director Center for Lutheran Theology & Public Life

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Concordia University, Irvine

Mercy Journeys is being Hacked

That's right. Some hack is posting Casino and Viagra ads on this blog. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Life's grand. 

Pastor H.

Great Luther Quote on Caring for Others in Trying Times

On August 2, 1527, this dread plague struck Wittenberg. Fearing for the safety of Luther and the other professors at the university, Elector John, on August 10, ordered Luther to leave for Jena. Five days later the university moved to Jena, then to Schlieben near Wittenberg, where it remained until April of the following year. Unmoved by the elector’s letter or by the pleas of his friends, Luther, along with Bugenhagen, stayed to minister to the sick and frightened people. By August 19 there were eighteen deaths; the wife of the mayor, Tilo Dene, died almost in Luther’s arms; his own wife was pregnant and two women were sick in his own house; his little son Hans refused to eat for three days; chaplain George Rörer’s wife, also pregnant, took sick and lost both her baby and her life; Bugenhagen and his family then moved into Luther’s house for mutual encouragement. Writing to Amsdorf, Luther spoke about his Anfechtungen and about the hospital in his house, closing his letter by saying, “So there are battles without and terrors within, and really grim ones; Christ is punishing us. It is a comfort that we can confront Satan’s fury with the word of God, which we have and and which saves souls even if that one should devour our bodies. Commend us to the brethren and yourself to pray for us that we may endure bravely under the hand of the Lord and overcome the power and cunning of Satan, be it through dying or living. Amen. At Wittenberg on All Saints’ Day in the tenth year after the trampling down of the papal bull, in remembrance of which we, comforted .in both respects, have drunk a toast.”¹ By the end of November the plague had definitely receded and in December Luther’s wife was happily delivered of her child, Elizabeth. LW 43.115

Those who are engaged in a spiritual ministry such as preachers and pastors must likewise remain steadfast before the peril of death.⁴ We have a plain command from Christ, “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep but the hireling sees the wolf coming and flees” [John 10:11]. For when people are dying, they most need a spiritual ministry which strengthens and comforts their consciences by word and sacrament and in faith overcomes death. However, where enough preachers are available in one locality and they agree to encourage the other clergy to leave in order not to expose themselves needlessly to danger, I do not consider such conduct sinful because spiritual services are provided for and because they would have been ready and willing to stay ff it had been necessary. We read that St. Athanasius⁵ fled from his church that his life might be spared because many others were there to administer his office. Similarly, the brethren in Damascus lowered Paul in a basket over the wall to make it possible for him to escape, Acts 9 [:25]. And also in Acts 19 [:30] Paul allowed himself to be kept from risking danger in the marketplace because it was not essential for him to do so.

Accordingly, all those in public office such as mayors, judges, and the like are under obligation to remain. This, too, is God’s word, which institutes secular authority and commands that town and country be ruled, protected, and preserved, as St. Paul teaches in Romans 13 [:4], “The governing authorities are God’s ministers for your own good.” To abandon an entire community which one has been called to govern and to leave it without official or government, exposed to all kinds of danger such as fires, murder, riots, and every imaginable disaster is a great sin. It is the kind of disaster the devil would like to instigate wherever there is no law and order. St. Paul says, “Anyone who does not provide for his own family denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” [I Tim. 5:8]. On the other hand, if in great weakness they flee but provide capable substitutes to make sure that the community is well governed and protected, as we previously indicated, and ff they continually and carefully supervise them [i.e., the substitutes], all that would be proper.

What applies to these two offices [church and state] should also apply to persons who stand in a relationship of service or duty toward one another. A servant should not leave his master nor a maid her mistress except with the knowledge and permission of master or mistress. Again, a master should not desert his servant or a lady her maid unless suitable provision for their care has been made somewhere. In all these matters it is a divine command that servants and maids should render obedience and by the same token masters and ladies should take care of their servants.⁶ Likewise, fathers and mothers are bound by God’s law to serve and help their children, and children their fathers and mothers. Likewise, paid public servants such as city physicians, city clerks and censtables, or whatever their titles, should not flee unless they furnish capable substitutes who are acceptable to their employer.

In the case of children who are orphaned, guardians or close friends are under obligation either to stay with them or to arrange diligently for other nursing care for their sick friends. Yes, no one should dare leave his neighbor unless there are others who will take care of the sick in their stead and nurse them. In such cases we must respect the word of Christ, “I was sick and you did not visit me …” [Matt. 25:41–46]. According to this passage we are bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped.⁷

Luthers Works 43.1212

Simul-video

This the first video I've taken while in flight AND posted to the blog WHILE in flight! 

Who would have believed...

Video of Video-ing

Walther: "Let the Gospel predominate"

"In the twenty-first place, God's Word is not rightly divided 
when the preacher does not, in general, let the Gospel predominate." 
C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel

Indian Evangelical Lutheran Church President on "A Little Book on Joy"

 “God so Loved the World that He gave His only Son”, the Scripture says in John 3:16. The Angel brought this Good News of “Joy to the World” (Luke 2:10) and announced the birth of Christ.  This “Joy” is for entire World.  There is no barrier of Color, Caste or Creed. The World did not recognize Him and missed the Joy.  Sadly, this joy is still missing in the community and even the Church. But if we lack it, how are we going to show forth this joy, especially in countries like India, where there are such challenges to spreading the Good News of Christ?

 

I deeply appreciate the efforts of Rev. Harrison in writing this book and hope that this “Little Book” will light up many hearts with great “Joy.”

 

Rev. J. Samuel, President, India Evangelical Lutheran Church

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Jacmel Trip Plans

Although a Mercy Medical Team (MMT) and an assessment team and Pastoral Care Team just returned from the Dominican Republic and Haiti, LCMS World Relief and Human Care is preparing to send another two teams into Haiti this coming weekend. The teams will establish a medical clinic at the First Lutheran Church Compound in Jacmel, Haiti. The teams are coming at the request of President Marky Kessa of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti. The Mercy Medical Team is scheduled to arrived on Saturday, 30 January 2010. The Pastoral Care Team is set to arrive on Sunday, 31 January 2010.

The LCMS World Relief and Human Care has been asked to provide both supplies and assistance for setting up a feeding station at the Lutheran Church Compound in Jacmel. We have arranged for shipments of food and water along with large tents suitable for the medical clinic and feeding stations to be shipped to Jacmel via sea from Santo Domingo to arrive on Saturday or Sunday. It is anticipated that more than 500 will be fed each evening.

We have been asked to offer pastoral care to the pastors and lay leaders in both Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. These highly dedicated men, whose own families are struggling, are committed to serving their congregations and communities. The task is to encourage them as they endeavour to minister the Gospel and bring mercy to thousands of tramatized fellow Haitians.

The Pastoral Care Team will provide training in "Christian Care" in time of disaster to ELCH leadership and lay leaders. This concise training reviews the importance of a "ministry of presence" in close proximity to Word and Sacrament.

The team also plans to obtain and transport emergency supplies including rice, beans, cooking oil, tents, and basic health supplies. We also hope to provide supplies to Port-au-Prince during the same time period. The local congregations of the ELCH will receive and distribute these items as they distribute food. We expect this relief effort to continue for four to six weeks. Total aid to Haiti is likely to continue for months to even a year or two.

The Mercy Medical Team is being led by Maggie Karner and Jacob Fiene. The Pastoral Care Team includes Rev. Glenn Merritt, Director of Disaster Response; Rev. Matthew Harrison, Executive Director; Rev. Carlos Hernandez, Director of Districts and Congregations; Rev. Dr. Albert Collver, Executive Pastoral Assistant; Al Dowbnia, Director of Communications; and John Edson, Vice-Chair, Board for Human Care Ministries.

We hope to provide on the ground updates on the blog. Official reports can be found here at the LCMS Website.

Haiti Relief

The Last Supper

24" x 34"

Florence Martinez

b. 1942, Jacmel, Haiti

(from Bryant University)

PBS National Show Features LCMS Relief Effort

(See original at PBS Religion & Ethics)

KIM LAWTON, correspondent: At Miami International Airport this week, Cili Dubersaint anxiously awaited the arrival of her sister, an earthquake victim who had part of her leg amputated. On the same flight, a team from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) returned to the US after doing emergency relief assessments and providing medical and spiritual support in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Even the veterans among them were still reeling from the horror they had all just left behind.

REV. GLENN MERRITT (LCMS World Relief and Human Care): I’m experienced as a disaster responder and a first responder and also as a canine responder, and the things that I saw were almost unimaginable.

LAWTON: American faith-based groups continue to play an active role in getting emergency help into Haiti. They say while the situation remains chaotic, more food, water, and medical attention are making it to the people in need. For the next six to eight weeks, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod will be sending regular shipments to feeding centers being set up in Haitian churches. The logistical obstacles remain immense.

MERRITT: It’s often, in Dominican Republic, easy to find the food to go into Haiti, but it’s difficult to find a way to get it in there and that’s the challenge, and of course fuel is in short supply, too, so if you’re running a truck to Port au Prince you need to know that you can get the fuel to come back out again.
Rev. Glenn Merritt

LAWTON: In addition to providing food, water, and medicine, relief officials are now moving from the immediate emergency response to more long-term recovery planning. This week, Samaritan’s Purse, the humanitarian group led by evangelist Franklin Graham, sent a barge to Haiti loaded with 400 tons of machinery that was too heavy to fly in.

LUTHER HARRISON (Samaritan’s Purse): They need other equipment to continue their work as they’re coming out of the emergency phase and into the recovery phase. You can see we have everything—heavy equipment, dump trucks, bull dozers, excavators, skid steer loaders, things that we can get in and help start cleaning up this debris.

LAWTON: The group is also shipping in supplies for water purification and materials for building shelters. They say providing practical help is part of their religious mission.

HARRISON: No red tape. Show them the love of Jesus Christ as we go out and try to help them get back on their feet.

LAWTON: Notre Dame D’Haiti Catholic Church in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood is coordinating the Archdiocese of Miami’s response. Every day, volunteers sort and pack the donations that keep pouring in. Father Reginald Jean-Mary is also developing more long-range plans.

REV. REGINALD JEAN-MARY (Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church): In the next two months, the next three months, I think we need to start restoring the economy of the country to give people the sense of autonomy, the sense of dignity, and also I see a great need of trying to begin establishing structures that’s going to help the people in the future.

LAWTON: Father Reginald and other faith-based groups are also focusing efforts on helping Haitians here in the US—those who’ve recently arrived after surviving the earthquake and those who have been here and now can’t go back.

The US government has announced a new program that will allow undocumented Haitians who were living in the US, or those who were visiting here when the earthquake hit, to apply for Temporary Protected Status or TPS. That means they would be able to legally live and work here for the next 18 months. The US Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services expects up to 200,000 Haitians to apply for TPS.

OSCAR RIVERA (Church World Service): Right now, the way the situation is in Haiti, it would be inhumane to send them back, so this is something very good that our government has done to be able to keep these folks here and assist them.

LAWTON: Oscar Rivera directs the Miami office of the ecumenical Christian group Church World Service (CWS). CWS has a long history of refugee assistance and has already begun a nationwide project helping Haitians wade through the regulations and fill out the paperwork to apply for TPS. The group is also offering legal advice to Haitian families with differing immigration statuses.

NANCY DENIS (Managing Attorney, Church World Service): This is a catastrophe of really epic proportions, and it’s going to take a kind of a comprehensive approach to deal with the various situations that people are being faced with.

LAWTON: And CWS is helping the Haitians who came here with family members who were seriously injured in the earthquake and medevacked to US hospitals. In all of these projects, the group is working with a network of affiliated local churches.

RIVERA: The churches are a key part that, with their help, with their time, with their donation, with their expertise that they have greatly helps us with making a difference in these peoples’ lives.

LAWTON: Reverend Joanem Floreal of Miami’s Shalom Community United Methodist Church says working within the churches builds community trust.

REV. JOANEM FLOREAL (Shalom Community United Methodist Church): As pastors, we are trusted voices. As men of God, as women of God, people really trust us.

LAWTON: Floreal is part of a South Florida pastors’ group that has come together to address the many dimensions of the crisis—comforting the grieving in their congregations here and strategizing about how to provide more aid to Haiti.

FLOREAL: There is a sense of solidarity. There is a sense of unity I have never experienced before. We have Baptist pastors, Pentecostal pastors, United Methodist pastors, Free Methodist pastors, nondenominational pastors, pastors across denominational lines getting together to help people in Haiti. This is a great thing. This is something for us to celebrate.

LAWTON: Reverend Matthew Harrison, director of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s World Relief and Human Care, says he found cause to celebrate in the strength of the Haitian people. He just returned from providing pastoral care to Haitian refugees at a Dominican Republic hospital.

REV. MATTHEW HARRISON (LCMS World Relief and Human Care): The strength of the people just absolutely impressed everybody—a woman who just had her arm guillotined with nothing but Tylenol being treated by our doctors, smiling and thanking them for the love. It was an experience that was just overwhelming for our people.

LAWTON: He believes spiritual and emotional counseling will be a necessary part of Haiti’s future.

HARRISON: It’s going to be very important for all the religious community in the United States to come along with their faith communities, their denominational partners in Haiti and walk together with them, but especially to realize the strength is there. The strength of the future is in Haiti, not the United States, and the answers to their future are there, not here.

LAWTON: At Notre Dame d’Haiti, Father Reginald says he and his congregation are exhausted by the trauma of the last two weeks. But, he says, he’s still preaching hope.

JEAN-MARY: It is not a time for them to continue mourning and crying. This is the time to lift up your head, look in the sunrise direction, because the light of God is not off in Haiti. The hope will continue to burn and to shine. Therefore keep your head up, keep your dignity, and continue to strive to stay alive, because once you lose it, you lose it all.

LAWTON: He says sustaining that hope is the only way to Haiti’s ultimate recovery.
I’m Kim Lawton in Miami.

Tags: Church World Service, Churches, earthquake, Faith-based, Florida, Haiti, Lutheran, Miami, Relief, Samaritan's Purse, United Methodist

View of Jimani

This photo says it all...

I took this last week in Jimani, Dominican Republic at the Good Samaritan Hospital where our medical team worked.

Lord have mercy.

Pastor H.

Kenyan Bishop on "A Little Book on Joy"

Matthew Harrison has ventured into the topic that is the goal of our faith, for joy is what God expected from His creation especially in Man. Harrison reveals that Joy is a gift… This book is a real inspiration also to us in Africa, where we face so many challenges, to explore the Joy we have from God, and to share it with our neighbors, i.e. the Joy of the Gospel.

Bishop Walter E. Obare, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya

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St. Louis Fox 2 Story on the LCMS relief teams

Click HERE.

KMOX Interview on Haiti

Listen HERE for a KMOX St. Louis interview with Harrison and Fiene of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, on Haiti.

Ft. Wayne Paper Haiti Story by Kevin Leininger (member of Zion Lutheran)

Click HERE.

Albert Pujols and Cigars - Sympatico

After a wild week in the Dominican and Haiti, we took a few minutes in our last hours in Santiago, to visit an Aurora Cigar factory. We shared a common interest with our hosts in cigars, AND Cardinals slugger, Albert Pujols. The LCMS mission is smack in the center of one of the very greatest cigar producing regions in the world. 

Matt H. 

Jill Schumann on "A Little Book on Joy"

“…if it is to be a life which knows true joy, it shall be a joy in perspective” – so writes Matthew Harrison and, indeed, perspective is the strength of A Little Book on Joy. Harrison teases out Biblical moments of joy, translates them to our everyday lives, and in lively prose provides glimpses of the delights God promises. Joy abounds and still he makes it clear that the most profound joy is when we know our need of God and know that God fulfills all His promises. This book is centered in the clear understanding that human sinfulness and God's remarkable grace is at the heart of the story.
 
Jill A. Schumann
President and CEO
Lutheran Services in America

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Brief Biography

Jill A. Schumann

Jill Schumann, MBA, serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran Services in America. LSA is an alliance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and their over 300 health and human service organizations. Lutheran social ministry organizations form one of the largest nonprofit networks in the country. Together they serve one in 50 Americans each year and have aggregated annual incomes over $16.6 billion.

Prior to her work with LSA, she launched Kairos Health Systems, a nonprofit post acute care alliance, and served in executive roles with non-profit and for-profit organizations including on the senior team of Tressler Lutheran Services. She created ground-breaking programs in post acute healthcare, behavioral health and chemical dependency treatment. She has consulted with church organizations, healthcare, aging services and social service providers particularly around innovative programming for the future. Schumann leads regional and national task forces and project groups, and is a frequent speaker at conferences. She serves on the boards of directors of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the ELCA Board of Pensions, the Roundtable of National Faith-Based Health and Human Service Organizations and is the current chair of the board of directors of the National Human Service Assembly. For the seventh year in a row in 2009 she was named by the NonProfit Times one of the Top 50 leaders of power and influence in the United States and has been described as an “imaginative social entrepreneur.”

Ms. Schumann holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Mount Saint Mary’s University and did Ph.D. work in history and alcohol studies at Rutgers University.

Indianapolis Colts Doc Interviewed in Jimani about LCMS WR-HC Emergency Medical Team

Doug is Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Director of the IU Center for Sports Medicine at Indiana University - and a REALLY great guy. I'm honored to know him, and to have been thrown together with him however briefly, into an extraordinary situation of need. 

Pastor H.

Safely Home

The team that went to the Dominican Republic and Haiti is safely home.

Some of the same team members are planning to return to Haiti on Saturday/Sunday.

The ongoing care and aid will continue for months if not years in the future.

There is more to come -- photos and descriptions of what was experienced, as well as, new posts based on the team leaving Saturday and Sunday.

Thank you for your support.

Fifth LWR Post--Critical Issues in Haiti

It’s Tuesday afternoon, the 26th of January, and I’m somewhere over the Caribbean en route to Miami. I’m tired. I’m filled with anxiety as we move toward the next phase of disaster relief for Haiti.

The assessment team was present with the Haitian Lutherans. The team listened. The team saw what needed to be seen. Those of us who remained working in Jimani at the hospital have a very clear understanding of the medical issues that will be faced as we move to establish a temporary hospital in Jamal, which is the heart of the Lutheran area in Haiti and the heart of an area underserved. Working with the Dominican World Mission team, we have a boat contracted to bring tents specifically requested by the partner church, including larger tents for hospitals, examination rooms, etc. A second Mercy Medical Team (MMT) will hit the ground in Jacmel on Sunday. They will immediately begin treating wounds related to trauma, especially orthopedic issues. We know from our medical teams and from the consultation provided by Jimani MMT member, Dr. William Maloney (from whose report I am borrowing liberally), that there is a four- to six-week period to properly treat broken bones, reset poorly treated breaks, and treat infections and infected amputations in order to avoid longer term complications.

Childhood mortality from infectious disease will be on the increase due to the weakened state of many children who were already in a situation of compromised health before the quake. This will require an immediate vaccination effort. A mortality rate of as high as 30% can result in such situations. There is an immediate need for vitamin supplementation for at-risk children. Cholera, measles, and meningitis outbreaks are likely and will need to be treated immediately. Acute malnutrition is likely for many, particularly due to the rapid increase in the number of orphans, loss of income, family disruptions, etc. LCMS World Relief will assist the local Hatian church in establishing food distribution in cooperation and coordination with the local congregations, and in proximity to the clinic(s). By the way, from all indications there is an abundance of available food in the Dominican, and every dollar saved on shipping costs buys another dollar of rice or beans while contributing to the local economies of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. At the suggestion of President Kessa, and with the help of Ted Krey, we have secured a boat for regular food shipment from Santiago to Jacmel.

Over the period of 2-6 months there will be an overwhelming need for physical therapy, pastoral care and counseling, prosthetics, rehab, etc. The high number of amputations will require an aggressive prosthetics program. Traveling to developing countries (and this is especially true of Haiti) one notices many individuals who have been handicapped by injury or birth defect, who live life begging and in squalor, having little or usually no recourse to prosthetics and other treatment we take for granted in the U.S. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder counseling and training will be widely needed, particularly for Haitian Lutheran clergy, health workers, aid workers, and others.

Vocational assistance and housing will be long-term issues. It remains to be seen whether and what housing solutions come to the fore. There will no doubt be a large hodgepodge of housing solutions, most driven by the ingenuity and need of locals, but likely with relatively few dwellings being built with materials and methods meant to withstand future quakes. I well recall tent cities in many areas affected by the great Asian Tsunami that lasted for years. Micro-loan programs have been operated by LWR, LCMS World Relief, and many partners for decades and will be especially necessary in this situation. We must make every effort to train, serve, and encourage talented and eager Haitians, of which there is no shortage. They themselves are now, and will be, the key force behind this effort at recovery. And these very talented individuals will arise from unlikely and very surprising places. It is they who hold the key to the future recovery and long-term improvement in their own country. LWR school and medical kits will be vital treasures for months and months to come.

I noticed something while studying Jesus’ actions to assist those in need. When the text uses the great word for “compassion” (splachnizesthai) of Jesus, his concern for the needy never stops a mere empathy. Jesus always acts. He never fails to act. So shall American Lutherans. Help us come alongside our old and soon to be new Haitian friends. Thrivent is offering matching dollars for gifts to LCMS World Relief, and to LWR. The Lutheran Foundation in St. Louis is now matching gifts to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, offering to match up to $6,000 in donations from each of its 65 member congregations!

Pastor Matthew Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care
Board Member, LWR

Rev. Ted Krey, nephew of an LWR Board Member, distributes food in Jimani.

Juan Pablo Duarte Birthday Parade Dominican Republic

This morning, while sitting by the road and drinking coffee, a parade came marching down the street. I asked the clerk at the desk the reason for the parade, and she told me that it was for Juan Pablo Duarte. Duarte is considered the architect of the Dominican Republic's independence from Haiti in 1844. You can read more about him in English translation here via Google Translate, or here in Spanish. In the meantime, enjoy the parade!

-- abc3+

Rev. Harrison's 4th LWR Post

Leave it to a New Yorker.

In an earlier post, I described briefly the chaos that ensued at the hospital compound in Jimani on, I believe, the 23rd of January when a significant tremor struck the area. Some 1500 patients and family members, doctors, nurses, children, locals, expatriates all ran for their lives and out of the buildings. One poor man jumped from the second story of the large orphanage turned hospital. His leg had been amputated, but now his pelvis was fractured also.

Rev. Ted Krey, who had been ministering to these people one-on-one for days (along with his incredibly capable team), said, “Just walk among the people and calm them.” We went about praying, sitting, talking, singing, reassuring--being present. After about twenty minutes, a man stood up and began to lead the people in Creole hymns. The African style singing was a stark, faith-filled contrast and antidote to the terror, weeping, and fright now beginning to ebb. Another fifteen minutes or so later, a man stood from the second floor balcony with a bullhorn. He began shouting and telling the people to have courage--it is the end of the world. While I’d be hard pressed to reject the content of his eschatology (“When all these things begin to take place, look up for your redemption draweth nigh . . .” Luke 21:28), his preaching did anything but calm the crowd. And calm was what was called for as all the patients now needed to be re-triaged, having pulled loose bandages, I.V.s, damaged treated wounds, etc. scrambling out of the building.

Pastor Ted immediately suggested that we begin handing out meals to calm the crowd. It worked. One of the first ones to whom I offered the styrofoam container was an older Haitian man in a wheel chair, stout with a majestic countenance. He sat next to his relatives more seriously hurt than himself, head in hand, weeping. As I extended the tray to him, he shook his head, “no.” The crowd was completely calm again when a man (whether the same "prophet" as the earlier, I do not know) climbed on top of a trailer, bullhorn in hand, and began to try to stir up the crowd again. Neither do I know if he was intent on the same eschatological rant. In any case, the wheel-chaired Haitian immediately shouted to the young zealot in Creole. Not knowing a lick of Creole, I’ll offer a conjectured translation: “Shut up and sit down, you fool! These people don’t need this now!” His deep authoritative voice immediately accomplished its goal.

After all the meals had gone out and the truck had run to get more, I sat on the sand in front of his wheel chair. I apologized, speaking only the few words of Spanish and French I know--(If only I’d paid more attention to my French-speaking grandmother when she was alive…)--telling him I could not converse in those languages, much less Creole. He responded in crystal clear English. “No problem, we can speak in English.” My eyes opened wide and a smile marked my face. “Where did you learn such good English?” “I live in New York, I was just down here vacationing, visiting my relatives.” “Some vacation” I responded! We had a nice chat about life, about God, about family. He hoped that he and his injured wife (I believe) would be able to leave for Long Island the next day.

Even in the chaos of international disaster, it takes a New Yorker to get the job done. “Shut up and sit down!”

The larger point of all this is that the Haitians themselves and their Dominican neighbors will be the most significant leaders in responding to this disaster. Any long-term and lasting improvement of lives will happen only from the capacity built by accompanying--by coming along side the thousands upon thousands of still healthy, bright, effective Haitians who know their culture and will be the key to a better future.

That’s what LWR is about.

Pastor Matthew Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care
Board Member, LWR

Team Debriefing, Update, and Reflections

Pictured (in no particular order): Rev. Matthew Harrison (WR-HC), Rev. Glenn Merritt (WR-HC), Rev. Dr. Albert Collver, Danelle, Putnam (WM), Rev. Ted Krey (WM), Rev. Dr. Jorge Groh (WM), Olga Groh (WM), James Neundorf (WM), Sherie Auger (WM Caymen Islands), Rev. Ed Auger (WM Caymen Islands), Rev. Walter Ries Jr (Missionary from Brazil), Kisayrio Gebhart (WM Administrative Support), Rev. Carlos Hernandez (WR-HC), Jacob Fiene (WR-HC), Rev. Steve Lee (LCMS Pastor), Matthew Schlanger (WR-HC), and probably a few other people I forgot.

Today, from 9:00 a.m. until just after noon, the "team," minus the LCMS WR-HC Medical Medical Team (which returned yesterday), met to debrief and discuss the best way to pool resources to move forward to provide relief to the people in Haiti. The meeting was productive and offered time for the team to reflect and debrief on their experiences over the past few days. One thing that became apparent was that there were two distinct sets of experiences--the experiences of those who went into Haiti, to Port-au-Prince and Jacmel; and the experiences of those who stayed behind in Jimani at the Good Samaritan Hospital.

In summary, those who went into Haiti saw mass destruction of buildings and property, as well as evidence of the loss of human life. (Many bodies are still left buried in in the rubble, etc.) The destruction was great. However, apart from a few encounters with people on the ground, they were dealing mostly with assessing the situation, observing the conditions of the roads and buildings, and formulating logistically how further aid could be provided. They also noted that there were three basic needs: medical, food and nutritional, and spiritual and pastoral care.

On the other hand, those who remained behind at Jimani had a different experience altogether. There was the activity of the hospital and critical patients being flown in and out. Perhaps the most defining moment of their experience was the occurrence of two earthquakes/tremors that shook the compound. The first earthquake/tremor happened late afternoon/early evening just before dinner. In fact, I was sitting on the roof fiddling with "technology" to get an Internet connection for my laptop when the first quake/tremor hit. One thing I knew for certain was that I wasn't going to remain on the roof, and I quickly made my way down the stairs to terra firma. After that, I returned to the house where the doctors, volunteers, and caregivers were staying to relax some and reflect on what had just occurred. Mere moments after I "settled in," a nurse came running into the house saying, "We need a pastor! We need a pastor!" Carlos Hernandez and I responded and followed her to the hospital grounds. Meanwhile, Rev. Ted Krey and Rev. Walter Ryes (Ries) were at a different part of the hospital grounds, near the orphanage trying to assist there. The earthquake/tremor/aftershock caused the patients to relive what had occurred days earlier. Some were trying to flee, others were tearing their bandages off, and at least one jumped off a second story balcony, fracturing his pelvis. Once the situation settled a bit, it was time to help distribute the meals to the patients (and their families) for the evening. One Haitian climbed up to a high place and started shouting that the end of the world was near, etc. The situation over all was rather chaotic.

The second tremor occurred after many of the relief workers had fallen asleep and indeed felt stronger than the first one. The second tremor seemed to affect the doctors, nurses, and caregivers more than it affected the Haitians. One of the doctors panicked and tried to jump off the second story balcony. (Fortunately, he was persuaded to come down the stairs quickly instead.) A large number of the caregivers (including yours truly) slept outside that night.

The point being: the team that remained in Jimani was much more involved in the care to patients and caregivers alike than the assessment team that went into Haiti. Because the Lutheran pastors wore clerical collars, the Haitians, who are predominately Roman Catholic, took comfort knowing that a "priest" was praying for them--even if, the "priest" couldn't speak their language. The other protestant ministers (e.g., few Baptists) tended to blend in with the other volunteers and relief workers because they were not readily identifiable as clergy.

These two different sets of experiences were helpful in the team debriefing for the planning of the next stage of relief.

Currently, LCMS World Relief and Human Care is in the planning stages to deploy a Mercy Medical Team (MMT) to Jacmel, Haiti, very soon. Such a team comes at the request of President Kessa. Of course, over the next few days the situation could change, as it is rather fluid, but currently that is the plan. Further plans are being made on how to best provide relief for the next stage. The debriefing experience was good and allowed the team to express gratitude to each other and to look forward to the future.

- abc3+

Rev. Thomas Bernard Talks About Why the Earthquake Came to Haiti

Rev. Thomas Bernard of the ELCH talks about why the earthquake came to Haiti. He gives a good perspective and overview. The video was recorded by Rev. Dr. Doug Rutt of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.

Rev. Harrison's Third LWR Post -- "Thank You."

"Thank you."

The team of LCMS docs just debriefed, packed themselves into two vans here in Jimani, Dominican Republic, and headed off on the six hour trip to the capital and back home. What an amazing group!

Not a half hour ago, we were all together on the back porch of the large home, which has been the erstwhile dorm for medical teams. The stories of who was with us, how they were assembled within hours, and then put on the ground is amazing. The docs and nurses where high-level professionals, university instructors, emergency room doctors, and nurses--experts in numerous disciplines. As we talked, they were thankful, traumatized, joyous, exhausted, and emotional. They expressed profound struggle in dealing with the carnage they had just walked into; and yet at the same time, profound faith in Jesus.

As the first tremor struck last night, and as the LCMS missionaries delivered trucks full of meals, I was asked to guard the load until the word was given to disperse the precious cargo. I leaned against the tailgate, and a tall, mustached gentleman with an easy southern accent struck up a conversation. He was in his scrubs watching the chaos of 1500 Haitians who not ten minutes earlier had scrambled for their lives out of the orphanage converted to a hospital. "Where ya from?", I asked. "Georgia." "Who ya with," I continued. "I'm with a group called the L.C.M.S. I never even knew they existed, had no idea what they did, but a friend of mine called and asked me to go. I've never been so impressed with a group of people in my life." "That¹s great to hear," I said. "I'm with the L.C.M.S. too."

One of the seasoned emergency room docs struggled to get hold of what she'd just seen. She wept as she recounted the story of stepping off the bus late at night this past Tuesday and jumping into the operating room. Her first patient was a young woman who lay bleeding to death on the floor. The team worked and tried everything, but life was quickly ebbing. The woman had lost her entire family. "What should I say to her?" the doc asked others in the room? "Tell her it's o.k. . . . to go be with her family." She did so.

"Pastor, I don¹t know how to cope with this," she told me. I helped her begin to process the matter in the context of the cross of Jesus. "Pastor, I'm going back home now. The people I work with will not understand this. Patients where I work complain about everything. I just treated a woman who had her arm guillotined with nothing but Tylenol as pain reliever, and she was smiling at me, thanking me. I couldn't believe it. These people have lost everything, and they are so thankful."

As I was writing this, a doctor just appeared behind the building where I am sitting, moaning in anguish and pain about what he'd just experienced. One of our pastors was with him. He's just come from Port au Prince, is exhausted, overwhelmed, hasn't slept in days. The volume of trauma is infinite. He feels great need to return.

In the midst of all this, the Haitians have shown amazing faith, regularly singing hymns to Jesus as they huddle with their lone surviving child or a new friend on the ground or in the next bed over.

O blessed Jesus, have mercy upon your people. Cause this affliction to cease. Comfort the dying, the sick, and the traumatized. Uphold the faith, hearts, and hands of all those many who are were unharmed but now are assisting the needy, and also those who have come as angels of mercy. Amen.

No mind can comprehend this. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Rom. 11:33).

We can only face tomorrow with the knowledge that the outpouring of love and blessing in the wake of this disaster is and will be one of the most phenomenal acts of mercy in our time together on this earth.

Pastor Matthew Harrison
Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care
Board Member, LWR

President Kessa Welcomes LCMS Group in Haiti

President Kessa welcomes the LCMS group just past the border in Haiti on the morning of 22 January 2010. Present from the LCMS for President Kessa's greeting: Rev. Matthew Harrison (WR-HC), Rev. Dr. Jorge Groh (WM), Rev. Glenn Merritt (WR-HC), Rev. Dr. Albert Collver (WR-HC), Rev. Carlos Hernandez (WR-HC), Rev. Steve Lee, Dr. John Lautenschlager, Rev. Dr. Doug Rutt (CTSFW), James Neuendorf (WM), Matthew Schlanger (WR-HC).

Matthew Harrison's 2nd LWR Post

I’ve never been so proud and humbled to be a member of the LCMS. When the LCMS assessment team arrived in Jimani on the southern Dominican/Haiti border, it was late. It was early morning before we got into bed for a very short night of sleep. Rev. Ted Krey, Rev. Walter, and Danelle Putnam greeted us with joy, laboring under the fatigue masked by adrenalin--just enough to sustain for days on end with little or no sleep. The LCMS WM team in the Dominican is incredible in any case, but in the past week they’ve shone with a compassion and determination under the most severe trials. We are at a hospital, which has performed some 500 major surgeries in the past four days, victims helicoptered in from Haiti. Ted Krey and his team have been a force for mercy and the Gospel, with real compassion.

Ted immediately figured out the logistics and delivery necessities of food and water for all patients and their families--1500 of them at distribution time. (That’s finding a need and filling it!). The Civil Defense Corps (a Dominican, mostly voluntary, organization) quickly assembled cooking facilities in the nearby town. Daily, Pastor Krey personally oversees and himself distributes water to everyone at every meal, and personally assists in the distribution of meals to all. Ready, young Haitians bunch behind the truck to disperse the Styrofoam containers of rice, beans, spaghetti, etc. in stacks of five or six. Between meals, Krey and his staff are tending to a hundred issues, questions, pastoral care concerns. In down time, they are speaking with people about Christ and bearing witness graciously through it all, consoling consciences wounded and sorrowful and hurting over mistakes and tensions and failings and weaknesses so prevalent in time of catastrophe. Make no mistake, food and water to victims of this tragedy are a critical, life-and-death issue. The initial mortality rate was high and fell dramatically when the LCMS medical team hit the ground with Pastor Krey at their side, though pastoral tasks have also included the purchase of caskets and transport of the deceased to the morgue and cemetery.

Ted moves through the crowds, completely understated, black collar with tab. He kneels, converses in fluent Spanish, and consoles, answers questions, finds aid, and solves problems. Last night, when a tremor threw everything into chaos, Ted was on the spot as 1500 patients and their families emptied the buildings. It’s vital for clergy to wear clericals in such times. The cross dangling from my neck has been the source of consolation, grasped in hands by those who do not understand my prayers to Jesus for them, yet understood fully. A protestant pastor in street clothes pulled me aside as I worked through the crowd alongside Ted and Walter. “Hey! I’m a ____ pastor! If you need some help, come and get me.” A well meaning and pious Christian to be sure, and God bless him for coming . . . but he was quickly lost in the crowd, and to me.

This is an amazing example of fidelity in word and deed in the midst of a chaotic, often crazy situation with the broadest representation of faiths--Christians and non-Christians (including the emergency workers). It is once again the strongest affirmation that there is no substitute for Lutheran accompaniment. Be present, act, love, serve. That’s the Jesus route in time of disaster.

Give generously. There is a whole lot of accompaniment coming.

LCMS.org, LWR.org

Matt Harrison

Executive Director, LCMS World Relief and Human Care

LWR Board Member