2015–2017 Mission Grant: Helping Hands Initiative — LCMS National Housing Support Corporation, $100,000 fully paid

In September, 2016, we reported that we were able to successfully complete the Helping Hand Initiative in two communities in the Spring and Summer of 2016 according to our original plan, serving a total of 13 homeowners in the Lansdowne community of East St. Louis, Illinois, and Fremont, Nebraska.

The Mission Grant from the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML) helped the LCMS National Housing Support Corporation (Lutheran Housing Support) extend this Helping Hand Initiative from a local pilot program to a National Key Initiative of our organization. Since last fall Lutheran Housing Support (LHS) has not only completed the 2016 iteration of this initiative, we have worked to extend the Helping Hand Initiative into 2017.

We can say confidently that the 2015–2017 LWML Mission Grant not only impacted the ministries of Unity and Trinity Lutheran congregations in East St. Louis (Illinois) and Fremont (Nebraska) and the lives of those homeowners receiving services. The grant also helped LHS establish the Helping Hand Initiative as LHS’ National Key Initiative. Even now we are working on plans for the 2018 Helping Hand Initiative and ways that we can be even more successful at sustaining this initiative into the future.

— Mary Hamilton, LCMS Grants Manager

Read or print the FULL report.

For more information about this mission grant, view the individual mission grant page here.