Last summer Lutheran World Relief made an appeal for Quilts and, especially, Health Kits to help meet the demands for these humanitarian supplies for eight specific countries. Last October at First Lutheran’s LWR Ingathering, Lutheran churches from Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa responded by donating over 850 Health Kits, 1500 Quilts, 425 Layettes, 1600 School Kits, 145 Sewing Kits, and hundreds of bars of soap, which were delivered to the LWR warehouse in St. Paul.
After the recent earthquake in Haiti, the plea for Health Kits has become critical as LWR warehouse supplies are being depleted. On January 19, 2010, LWR’s first of multiple planned shipments to Haiti included 650 Health Kits and 1500 Layettes from the Maryland warehouse. Immediate plans are to send more Health Kits, Quilts, and Layettes, and then School Kits as the need arises. Besides its financial commitment of $2.25 million for relief efforts, LWR foresees its presence in Haiti to last 3-5 years.
First Lutheran will be hosting its Spring LWR Ingathering on Saturday, May 15, from 7:30am to 12 noon, collecting Quilts, Health Kits, Layettes, School Kits, Sewing Kits, and Soap. Please consider sewing quilts - or assembling some kits - or collecting bars of soap – as individuals or as a group project. Instructions for making quilts, layettes, and all kits collected by LWR, along with packing instructions, can be found on its website: http://www.lwr.org/parish .