The international mission organization Lutherans in Medical Missions (LIMM) this fall is funding two projects that rely on short-term volunteers:
- A LIMM grant of $10,000 will be used by Extra Mile Ministries to fund a new ministry to victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Biloxi, Miss., is matching LIMM’s grant with an additional $10,000 to establish “The Caring Place.”
The project will attempt to help heal the emotional and spiritual scars left by Hurricane Katrina by providing counseling, support groups, and worship opportunities in an ongoing outreach program to the community.
The grant will include training for up to four LIMM volunteers who will work with the Extra Mile Disaster Response Team on a rotating basis in its Gulf Coast ministry and may serve in other locations during crisis situations.
LIMM Board member Dr. Carli Zygowicz of Belvidere, Ill., recently volunteered in Biloxi with Chaplain Ralph Buchhorn of Extra Mile Ministries.
Zygowicz, who served at a Lutheran church clinic, said, “There I saw again the hurts and needs of the people still suffering. They cannot afford medical or psychological assistance … depression is rampant, but I felt that I had received the blessings from the people there — and not the other way around — as they freely give hugs and thank you for coming there to help them.”
For more information about the ministry, or to volunteer, contact LIMM at limm@limm.org.
- Another $10,000 LIMM grant will be used by a team of three LCMS medical and pre-med students to serve two weeks in Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. The students — Christian Graves of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Simpsonville, N.C.; Nathan Hannemann of St. John Lutheran Church in Ellisville, Mo.; and Natalia Harmon of St. Mark Lutheran Church in Port Arthur, Texas — have expressed interest in becoming career medical missionaries.
Serving in Kyrgyzstan Dec. 9-23, the students will assist LCMS medical Missionaries Sue Pfeil and Rita Nickel.
“We thank God for the provision to fund these two projects,” said Bobbie Lautenschlager, LIMM’s executive officer. “There is so much more to be done as we identify partnerships with congregations and other agencies to provide health and healing teams who serve in the name of Jesus the Christ, the Healer, to relieve the suffering of so many here and around the world.”
For more information about Lutherans in Medical Missions, visit its Web site at www.limm.org or call its Concordia, Mo., office toll free at (866) 676-5466.
Posted Oct. 16, 2006
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