# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S388
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

BSS SOCIAL ACTION AND WELFARE

Food

A global food crisis is building up on the horizon.
Food production is unable to keep pace with population
growth. The specter of starvation is in sight. Some an-
ticipate mass starvation such as history has never
known as early as 1980. We like to believe that this
is a projection of alarmists. We wonder — with a sense
of apprehension. For the moment it is safe to say that
more than half of the human family is underfed or
badly fed.

Lutheran World Relief food shipments in the last
2 years totaled more than 107 million pounds valued at
$615 million. Commodities consisted of powdered milk,
cornmeal, wheat, flour, rolled wheat, bulgur wheat,
grain sorghum, fats and oils, ASP (blended food pro-
ducts), and beans — all of it obtained without cost from
U.S. Government food stocks. Dwindling surpluses in
government warehouses resulted in curtailed programs
in some areas. In India and other areas where they are
present Lutheran missionaries participate actively in
the distribution.

Clothing

Lutheran congregations continue to respond gener-
ously to our clothing needs. Shipments to our ware-
houses in the last 2 years came to 9!2 million pounds
valued at more than $9 million. Clothing was shipped
chiefly to Greece, Jordan (both banks), Brazil, Korea,
India, Tanzania, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Zambia,
and Ivan.

Changes in program and location have greatly les-
sened the need for adult clothing. The need for blankets,
bedding, and children's clothing remains urgent. Pres-
ent stocks of adult clothing are adequate for the present.
As a result, LWR in its fall appeal will ask only for
blankets, bedding, and children’s clothing —no adult
clothing. This will mean a considerable saving in pro-
cessing costs. Also: collections by boxcar will not be
sponsored. Auxiliary warehouses in Denver, Pasadena,
Vancouver, Wash.. and Middlesex, N. J., will be closed.
Warehouses in New Windsor, Md., St. Louis, Minneapo-
lis, Nappanee, Houston, Modesto, and the Canadian
warehouses in Winnipeg and Kitchener will continue in
operation.

Medical Supplies

LWR shipments of medical supplies and related items
in the last 2 years were valued at slightly under $5 mil-
lion. Supplies were received without cost, except han-
dling, from Interchurch Medical Assistance. Hospitals
and clinics identified with Missouri Synod missions
overseas received free supplies with a market value of
more than $112 million.

Special Activities

Many loving hands provided a variety of needed
items. Women sewed special garments for refugee chil-
dren in Vietnam, Tanzania, and the Holy Land. Chil-
dren in our parish and Sunday schools assembled kits
for the same children. Young people gathered soap

from hotels and motels. Some women even made soap
from kitchen fats. LWR’s 2-year shipment report
includes

30,012 Kiddie-Kits

22,546 Activiti-Kits

35,078 Klenli-Kits

7,938 Layettes

10,280 Esther garments (for children in Africa)

25,240 Dorcas garments (for children in Jordan)

21,304 ao quan garments (for children in Vietnam)

524,075 blankets

39,403 pounds of soap — homemade

225,650 pounds of soap — commercial

These items, valued at almost $1 million, were shipped
for careful distribution in Brazil, Hong Kong, India,
Jordan, Korea, Nigeria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Vietnam, and
Zambia.

Cash Grants and Special Assistance Projects

While a variety of self-help or community develop-
ment projects are sponsored through our membership
in LWR, a sizable number of such projects are spon-
sored independently by our Board of World Relief.
These are largely directly related to the Synod’s over-
seas missions and are designed to undergird our mis-
sionaries in their total ministry in their communities.

Among the special groups helped and heartened
through these allocations are the following:

Pastors and teachers of the Synod in emergency
hardship situations;

Victims of war in the Middle East and suffering peo-
ple on both sides of the fighting line in Nigeria: Biafra:

Refugee families in many lands who have escaped
from enemy-occupied areas in Vietnam, from Red China
and other areas where their lives and subsistence were
threatened;

Lutheran pastors and church workers in East Euro-
pean countries living in straitened circumstances;

People made homeless by disaster, impoverished by
untoward caught up in emergency
situations.

circumstances,

Volume and Cost

Through 1967 and 1968 LWR shipments totaled
slightly under 120 million pounds valued at slightly
more than $20 million. In Board of World Relief terms
(we cover a third of the total LWR operating cost) this
means that we are responsible for having distributed
some 40 million pounds of needed commodities during
this period, valued at almost $7 million. Total Board of
World Relief disbursements came to exactly $949,000.
Each dollar spent multiplied itself more than seven
times in actual value. We are grateful for the Provi-
dence which makes this possible.

Financing

Operating funds come from designated special con-
tributions made largely by congregations. Some have
placed World Relief in their budget, recognizing the im-
portant role World Relief is designed to play in the total
mission of the church. Currently 818 congregations