2025β2027 Mission Grant #1
Regional Disaster Response LERT Shower Trailers
LCMS Office of National Mission, Disaster Response Ministry, U.S. | $81,500
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Watch the video about this mission grant!
About This Mission Grant
Lutheran Early Response Teams (LERT) serve thousands of individuals and families who are suffering from loss in the wake of disasters like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires, and tornadoes. When deployed, LERT teams traditionally use congregations in the disaster areas as their base camps. The host congregations provide a place for the LERT teams to sleep, eat, rest, recover, and receive spiritual care during their time of service. Host congregations are incredible to work with as the teams help them rebuild their communities and share the life-changing message of the Gospel.Β
One challenge for team members has been the lack of showers and laundry facilities at a host church. LERT members have showered at national gym chains, in membersβ homes, in personal campers, or even under cold garden hoses. This grant will fund half the cost of two combination bathroom/shower/laundry trailers to be used during disaster response work.
Disaster preparedness is a priority of LCMS Disaster Response. Mercy in Action, which includes Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) training, is a program designed to help train congregations to respond when tragedy strikes and includes bible studies on mercy, charity and human care. To
date, LERT has trained more than 18,000 Lutheran volunteers in disaster relief and response with more than 50 LERT Disaster Response equipment trailers utilized by all 35 LCMS districts.
More Mission Grant Photos
Through LCMS Disaster Response, districts are quickly informed of where the latest disaster is and what help is needed. Areas of Volunteer Service include: Tree removal and chainsaw ministry; flood mitigation through muck out and tear out; home reconstruction; VBS-style ministry to children affected by disaster; flood buckets for flood cleanup; and food preparation for displaced residents and relief workers.
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During a disaster, LCMS Disaster Response works directly with districts, professional church workers and congregations to enhance their ministry to their own members and the local community. The LCMS provides District Disaster Response Coordinators (DDRCs) and District Disaster Response Teams (DDRTs) with essential training in preparedness and response, plus on-site consultations and advice. Working together allows districts and the LCMS to meet more needs and to meet them more effectively.
Our LERT volunteers often travel hundreds of miles to serve their brothers & sisters in Christ in their time of need. They are volunteers on the front line in times of recovery. And as they serve as the hands and feet of Christ Jesus, we want to support them and make sure that they are properly cared for both spiritually and physically. One can never underestimate the feelings of having clean clothing and warm showers, especially after working long days in dirty and contaminated environments.
However, over the many years of responding to disasters, LERT Teams have faced the same challenge at most host congregations: there is a lack of showers and/or laundry facilities. The average LCMS congregation has traditional bathroom facilities, but they lack shower rooms and the ability to provide facilities for LERT volunteers to personally wash and cleanse themselves.
Often, volunteers are forced to find creative ways to clean up after a long day of working in disaster recovery. Depending on the severity of the disaster, (tornados have more destructive smaller paths, versus hurricanes and flooding that cause larger swaths of destruction) many non-traditional models for showering have been used by LERT members. Those examples include, national gym chains, member's homes, personal campers, or even the cold shower from a garden hose.
This grant requests half support towards 2 combo bathroom/shower/laundry trailers to be used during disaster response work. These units will enable LERT volunteers to enjoy a refreshing shower to help them recover from their hard day's work & allow LERT & base camp volunteers a place to do laundry. Each trailer will be stored in a regionally central location for quick deployment when needed & will be shared primarily, but not limited, throughout the Midwest and Southern regions of the U.S.
