2019-2021 Mission Grant #12 — Women’s Witness and Mercy in Asia — Mission Central — $100,000

With each coin or bill I put in one of my Mite Boxes scattered around the house I pray for a particular mission grant. Today, the Holy Spirit brought to my mind the 2019-2021 LWML Mission Grant #12, Women’s Witness and Mercy in Asia. Our missionaries throughout Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia serve God in a very secular environment. These women teach English as a second language, build relationships and share the reason for their hope and acts of mercy … Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

Your donations on Giving Tuesday, December 3, 2019 will help support Mission Grant #12, Women’s Witness and Mercy in Asia and will provide assurance that Mission Central can keep our missionaries in an area where they are able to share Jesus and His mercy with those who are hungry to hear the Gospel

Debbie Larson

President
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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2017–2019 Mission Grant — Mercy House for Women and Children — $100,000

Being assigned my deaconess internship at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Flint, Michigan, was an eye-opening experience. My home in rural northwest Missouri was very different from this city of 200,000 where auto manufacturing and its related industries employed the majority of the population. Yet homelessness, unemployment, and poverty crept into the landscape of the city as the auto industry experienced a downturn during the 1970s.

The challenges of living in Flint were compounded four decades later with the Flint water crisis. Lead-tainted water had been allowed to flow through the drinking water pipes, causing additional hardships for the residents. The social problems that arose seemed insurmountable.

People at the Franklin Avenue Mission in Flint sought to shine God’s light into the community by meeting the needs of their poverty-stricken neighbors. They established Mercy House, a safe place for homeless, pregnant and/or abused women and their children. The facility seeks to break the cycle of poverty and decrease the potential for abuse by housing women and children in a safe, caring, Christian environment, where parenting and relationship building can be modeled. The long-term transitional housing facility received a $100,000 LWML Mission Grant at the 2017 Albuquerque convention to be used to renovate and furnish the residence.

Our Mite Box contributions have helped Franklin Avenue Mission and the Mercy House positively impact the lives of those receiving care through their programs. Thank you for giving generously this Giving Tuesday, December 3.

Deaconess Betty Knapp

Vice President of Special Focus Ministries
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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LWML Mission Grant 2015–2017 Mission Grant: Disaster Response Trailers — LCMS Disaster Response, $80,000 

“Blessed to be a blessing” … a simple but powerful phrase that cannot adequately describe the joy expressed when a Disaster Response Trailer shows up in time of need. This Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML) Mission Grant of $80,000 paid for one third of the costs per trailer for requesting congregations in each of 21 districts. The congregation/district and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Disaster Response paid the remaining two thirds. Since receiving the $80,000 grant money from the LWML, the LCMS was able to fund 26 Disaster Response Trailers.

It multiplied into nearly $270,000 which was used to purchase equipment for the trailers, enabling Disaster Response volunteers to be better prepared when offering relief and comfort to people who suffer after a disaster. LCMS Disaster Response continues to provide a ministry of presence before, during, and after a disaster, giving the volunteers more opportunities to speak the comforting truths of the Gospel to the affected individuals and families. LWML has been part of this amazing outreach. Indeed, God has blessed us to be a blessing! Thank you for being a blessing this Giving Tuesday, December 3.

Char Kroemer

Vice President of Communication
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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Our country celebrates Thanksgiving Day in November. We have much for which to be thankful! Our highest thanksgiving comes from the gift of Jesus, our Savior. God has given us everything in Christ; and, therefore, we thank and praise Him, serve and obey Him, and devote ourselves to His service.

Recent storms and disasters have challenged us and may make us wonder and question God. At those moments let us go the Psalms and other passages in God’s Holy Word for comfort and assurance.

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17–18).

Heavenly Father, grant that we follow Your Word and thank our dear Lord for His holy precious blood, which He so freely offered for us on the cross. In His name we pray. Amen.

Angelina Jauregui

Vice President of Gospel Outreach
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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Flying to the LCMS convention last July, a passenger across the aisle noticed my LWML socks. The resulting conversation confirmed that both of us were headed to Tampa. A new sister in Christ! We are now Facebook friends and the picture she took of my socks appeared on her Facebook page.

What do you wear that points to the LWML? What do you wear that points to Jesus? A cross? A pin? Maybe an LWML sweater with our logo? There are many items which can point to our organization and give us opportunities to witness to our faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Scroll down this home page and click on the “Shop LWML” box at the bottom. Discover something you might like to wear that would speak of your faith and the LWML. Have fun shopping!

and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ (Philemon 6).

Char Kroemer

Vice President of Communication
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day (Genesis 1:3-5).

Did you remember to turn your clock back an hour on Sunday? It may take several days to adjust to how early the darkness arrives. God created both light and darkness. In Genesis, He frequently reminds us that “it was good.”

Our lives can also have periods of darkness and light. In the darker times, remember that God is with you and His redeeming love is more boundless than the stars in the sky.

If you know someone who is experiencing a darker time in their life, pray for them, send a text or a call; invite them to a church or LWML activity. Offer a ride. Give them a copy of the Mustard Seed Devotion Light in the Darkness (available at www.lwml.org/posts/todays-mustard-seed-devotion/light-in-the-darkness).

Arlene Naasz

Meeting Manager
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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As the newly appointed LWML Public Relations Director for the 2019–2021 biennium, I’ve been reading helpful advice offered by my predecessors. You might think all the remarks would be very specific to the position, but many apply to all of us as we live our daily lives. One email read, “Keep smiling, have a positive and ‘can do’ attitude, have your cell phone with you at all times, wear comfortable shoes, pray earnestly, and love the Lord.”

The qualities mentioned actually describe all Lutheran Women in Mission; they are things we do every day. We accomplish more with the right attitude, and we can keep smiling when our feet are comfy and we’re ready to communicate via our fully charged cell phone. The last two items — praying and loving the Lord — are things we do constantly. We pray at the beginning, middle, and end of a task, or meeting, or of our day. We pray earnestly. We know that God is listening and will answer our prayers. We love the Lord. When we do these things, we are living in the Spirit, which changes our attitude. One of our Mustard Seed Devotions tells us more; read it here.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5 NIV1984).

Susan Donnelly

Public Relations Director
Lutheran Women’s Missionary League

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