| Lutheran Hour Ministries Volunteers Aid Palestinian Christians
"Servants to the Nations" program begins 17th project this year
St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 26, 2003 — Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) "Servants to the Nations" volunteers will donate their time and their muscle in early September landscaping one of the Holy Land’s most prominent hillsides. Working with members of the International Center of Bethlehem, they’ll plant olive trees and perform other landscaping on the grounds of the complex’s newly completed Dar al-Kalima Health and Wellness Center. Their primary mission – sharing God's message of hope and love to a neighborhood racked with physical and psychological trauma from continued Palestinian-Israeli violence.
 It's ironic that in a place where Jesus once healed the sick, violence has become an everyday occurrence,” says LHM ”Servants to the Nations” coordinator and Volunteer Opportunities Manager the Rev. Rudy Schaser.” This will be the fifth group Lutheran Hour Ministries has sent to help the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb create a refuge for hope and healing.”
In 1997, 1998 and 1999, Lutheran Hour Ministries sent volunteers to help Raheb build his vision. The LHM "Servants to the Nations” groups performed land clearing and worked as teaching and medical aides.
Today, Raheb’s International Center of Bethlehem consists of Christmas Lutheran Church, the Dar al-Kalima Academy and the Dar al-Kalima Health and Wellness Center. Slated for official dedication on Sept. 5, the health and wellness center will serve academy children and their families as well as the Bethlehem community. It will house preventive medicine and mental health clinics, as well as training, meeting and fitness facilities. LHM volunteers, armed with a grant for landscaping supplies from the Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis, will ready the grounds for the upcoming dedication.
"Every year in planning our "Servants to the Nations" program we look for meaningful, hands-on projects where adults, families and teens can work side by side experiencing the joy of serving others," says Schaser.
LHM's "Servants to the Nations" volunteers this year have worked in Eastern Europe and Latin America building and renovating chapels, youth camps and school facilities. This is the program’s 17th project. Two more are scheduled for later this year.
LHM currently is planning its 2004 "Servants to the Nations" itinerary. Further information on other LHM volunteer service opportunities can be found at www.lhm.org/volunteeropportunities.htm.
For more information, please contact:
Kathy Bernard
(800) 944-3450, ext. 4152 |
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