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	July 30, 2005 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 55

	Tsunami relief shifts to rebuilding phase

	By Joe Isenhower Jr.

	Six months after the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami killed
hundreds of thousands and leveled entire villages along the Indian Ocean
coastline, relief and mission leaders say that the generosity of Synod
donors has accomplished much to help meet the immediate needs of those
affected. Now, following extensive appraisals of the long-term
situation, efforts are shifting to help people rebuild their homes and
entire villages.

	By the first week of July, donors had given $5,582,598 to LCMS
World Relief/Human Care for tsunami relief, including $100,000 in a
matching grant from the Marvin M. Schwan Charitable Foundation. From
that total, $1,809,286 has been approved for an array of tsunami-relief
projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and other hard-hit areas.

	"The tsunami brought a whirlwind of activity and response to
immediate needs in the first months after the disaster," said Rev.
Matthew Harrison, executive director of LCMS World Relief/Human Care.

	Harrison said that relief work now is in an "intermediate
phase," as his office, LCMS World Mission, deployed staff in South Asia,
and partner-church representatives work to attain non-government,
non-profit status in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries.
Gaining such status, he said, will help "smooth out numerous logistical
issues in continuing our response to the tsunami, including the prospect
of rebuilding towns and villages."

	"We are absolutely committed to spending at least 95 percent of
the dollars our members have unselfishly given for direct tsunami
relief," Harrison indicated, pointing out that the remaining 5 percent
would "help cover the costs of administering" the tsunami-relief funds.

	"We also are committed to working with LCMS World Mission and
our partner churches in this effort in order to leverage and strengthen
local Asian Lutheran communities," he said. "We are absolutely committed
to aid victims in ways which increase local Lutheran capacity to reach
out in love and care for body and soul. Deployed staff is ensuring
accountability for dollars spent and is working to establish appropriate
local non-government organizations [NGOs] to achieve these ends."

	Harrison said that trips he has made to the tsunami-affected
areas -- the latest being this spring with six Synod seminary professors
-- tell me we are on the right track." He also mentioned the work of
Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Baltimore, in which the Synod participates.

	Harrison said that LCMS World Relief/Human Care has given
$100,000 to LWR for its "Wave of Giving" tsunami-relief campaign and
another $250,000 for general purposes. That is in addition to $1 million
that LCMS World Relief has given LWR as its share for general operations
this year.

	The "Wave of Giving" campaign had brought in nearly $17.9
million for tsunami relief by late July, including $5 million in
matching funds from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

	"Through LWR, LCMS World Relief has provided funding for work
carried out by a broad panoply of partners," Harrison said.

	"But with LCMS partner churches, LCMS World Mission, our
auxiliaries, recognized service organizations, and other select Lutheran
partners, we are able to work in ways which are specifically and
confessionally Lutheran," he said.

	Darin Storkson is the LCMS World Relief "deployed staff" person
in Asia. Since mid-April, he has been LCMS World Relief's regional
director-a new position that gives him responsibility for approving all
tsunami-relief grant requests for that office.

	Stationed in Jakarta, Indonesia, Storkson works closely with
Dennis Denow, an LCMS World Mission education specialist, helping to
develop and coordinate relief efforts there. For Sri Lanka, he works
with Michelle Hoeppner, an LCMS World Mission community-development
specialist based in China.

	Denow and Hoeppner were on teams visiting Indonesia and Sri
Lanka just after the tsunami struck to assess needs in those countries.

	When he accepted the position with LCMS World Relief/Human Care,
Storkson had for the past 10 years directed an educational and medical
ministry in the remote villages of Bali, Indonesia, sponsored by his
home congregation, Resurrection Lutheran Church in Boron, Calif.

	At the same time, he served as executive director of the Bali
Tourism Board and previously was a delegate of the International
Committee of the Red Cross.

	In Indonesia, estimates place the number of those dead from the
tsunami at 200,000, with half a million remaining homeless.

	Storkson said that although the emergency phase of relief work
in Indonesia is "largely over," the situation "remains grim," especially
in Banda Aceh and Nias, two areas hardest hit by the tsunami waves. He
said that the 500,000 people of Nias and the surrounding islands have no
functioning hospital.

	"Indonesia is an exceedingly difficult country in which to work
under the best of circumstances," Storkson said, adding that recovery
there is estimated to take 10 years at least.

	"So, we are working hard to get our foot in the door through
legal and government recognition," he said. "In the meantime, of course,
we are working with LCMS World Mission to identify and respond to
humanitarian needs.

	"All of this is complicated by extensive damage to
infrastructure, which wasn't great to begin with," Storkson said. "There
are enormous logistical challenges in these remote areas, and there are
complicated bureaucratic challenges in areas in which entire towns were
destroyed, along with all records."

	He said that since there is no LCMS partner church in Indonesia,
Synod relief efforts there are being channeled "through a variety of
Christian bodies."

	"We desperately need everyone's ongoing prayers," Storkson said,
"as do the millions of victims. Pray that we might be blessed to be
tools for the glory of God in the midst of this devastation. We also
need the continued financial support of our generous donors."

	Hoeppner said that the situation in Sri Lanka is "somewhat
better," with a "huge rebuilding effort under way, although "there is a
lot of frustration about getting it all done."

	About 30,000 people lost their lives in that country, and
hundreds of thousands are still homeless, she said, although most "do
have some shelter, even if it's tents in refugee camps." She said the
government there "is pretty well funded," although rebuilding -- as in
Indonesia -- "will take at least 10 years."

	"The main immediate work ahead is in setting up the
non-government organization status we need as a very positive and open
way of working with government to help in this rebuilding effort," she
said.

	Unlike Indonesia, Sri Lanka does have an LCMS partner church --
the Lanka Lutheran Church (LLC) -- through which "we are coordinating
all that we do," Hoeppner said.

	Although the LLC's base of operations and most of its
congregations are in the mountainous interior of the island country, she
said LLC leaders "have made the commitment to see tsunami relief as a
main outreach." Lanka pastors are conducting counseling, Hoeppner said,
while members distribute food, clothing, and supplies and see to other
basic needs, including recreational activities to provide some fun in
what have been very grim times. The church also is serving the needs of
tsunami victims who have come to the mountains.

	Several LCMS World Relief/Human Care tsunami-relief grants have
gone to pastors and others of the Lutheran Church in Sri Lanka, a
separate church body started as a result of the work of the Lutheran
Heritage Foundation, a Recognized Service Organization with the Synod.
Hoeppner said those grants, too, are coordinated through the LLC.

	She said that among pending projects in Sri Lanka is one to
rebuild a village in Kaluthera, located in a coastal area devastated by
the tsunami. The project would rebuild 60 houses -- some for LLC members
who lost their homes to the tsunami -- around a new church building for
an existing LLC congregation.

	Hoeppner said that "several similar new Lutheran communities are
a possibility" in Sri Lanka -- all "conditional" and largely dependent
on funding and attaining the NGO status.

	"But none of our response at any level of activity would be
possible without the compassion of Christ that our many generous donors
are showing," Harrison said.

	To donate toward tsunami relief through LCMS World Relief/ Human
Care, go to worldrelief.lcms.org <http://worldrelief.lcms.org>	and
click on "Give Now" in the box titled "Your gift helps tsunami
survivors."

	Mail checks earmarked "Asia Tsunami" and made payable to "LCMS
World Relief" to LCMS World Relief/Human Care, P.O. Box 66861, St.
Louis, MO 63166-9810. Or, call the credit-card gift line at (888)
930-4438.

	****************************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

	****************************************

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