LWR Ingathering: Can you believe we filled the Truck!
By Eileen Lane, St John Lutheran, Allentown
On Saturday, September 21, the NEPA Synod hosted our first local Lutheran World Relief (LWR) Ingathering to collect Mission Quilts and Kits destined for the Baltimore warehouse. Congregations collect donations and assemble various LWR kits – Personal Care, School, Baby Care or Fabric kits – for their “God’s Work. Our Hands.” service projects. Quilts are typically made all year long with a celebration Blessing of the Quilts and Kits through the fall season. Our LWR Ingathering was scheduled to coincide with these activities, to collect donations and coordinate transportation to the Baltimore warehouse. As a new venture, we were very curious to see the turnout from local churches.
As is typical with our Synod, the response was AMAZING! During our 3 hour collection period, cars, trucks and vans kept coming filled with as many boxes as could be carried! Most congregations brought Personal Care Kits totaling 570 kits from Trinity Lutheran in Robesonia, St. John’s Lutheran in Stroudsburg, Trinity Lutheran in Topton, Trinity Lutheran in Perkasie, Zion Lutheran in Womelsdorf, Emmanuel’s Lutheran in Emmanuelville and St. John’s Lutheran in Allentown. The largest quantity donated were School Kits totaling 595 kits from Zion Lutheran in Womelsdorf, Good Shepherd Lutheran in Northampton and St. Stephen’s Lutheran in Bethlehem. Fifty-four (54) Mission Quilts were collected from St. John’s Lutheran in Slatington, St. Paul’s Lutheran in Douglassville and St. John’s Lutheran in Allentown. Fourteen (14) Baby Care kits were collected from St. John’s Lutheran in Allentown.
On October 12, through the generous donation of Kristi Parcel-Smith of Remax in Allentown, we drove her company’s truck to Christ Lutheran Church in Reading to collect donations from three additional churches. We added more boxes containing 207 Mission Quilts from Reformation Lutheran in Reading and Robeson Lutheran in Plowville. We also added 110 Personal Care Kits from Nativity Lutheran in Reading and St. Paul's in Reading. We continued our journey on to Bergstrasse Lutheran Church in Ephrata where volunteers loaded our boxes onto a tractor-trailer headed to Baltimore on Monday, October 14. What an amazing outpouring of love for our neighbors in need!
Typically, LWR Quilts and Kits are sent around the world. Following Hurricane Helene, LWR Quilts and Personal Care Kits are being distributed throughout the devastated areas in the Carolinas and Georgia. Donations at our Ingathering represent only a portion of the total contributions to LWR from our Synod, as some congregations ship their donations directly to the Baltimore warehouse or attend a closer Ingathering. Several of our churches bring their donations to an Ingathering in Auburn, PA, and three churches delivered their donations directly to Bergstrasse Church.
