Congregations band together to aid Katrina victims

Happy New Year! It will be a happier new year for Katrina-wracked residents of New Orleans' ninth ward, thanks to 10 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations that are joining forces next week to help rebuild homes there.

The work crew includes members of Immanuel, East Dundee; St. John's, Algonquin; Holy Cross, Cary; Immanuel, Crystal Lake; Prince of Peace, Crystal Lake; St. Peter, Schaumburg; St. Matthew, Hawthorn Woods; St. John, Island Lake, and Holy Cross, Collinsville, and the group's host, St. Matthew Lutheran Church of Barrington. Four seniors from Fox Valley Lutheran Academy in Elgin also will make the trip.

Some 110 volunteers will caravan south on Jan. 11, to help families continue renovating their homes and spruce them up with landscaping.

You can help, too. The crew is taking a pair of trucks donated by Enterprise Rent-A-Car that it hopes to fill completely with non-perishables for the nearby Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. This charity has served as many as 7,500 people each day.

Last year, 9,000 pounds of supplies were collected by just four Lutheran churches who made the trip; this year, Associate Pastor Phillip Baerwolf of Immanuel East Dundee is hoping to double that number.

"It simply lets us live out the love that Jesus has shown to us, especially as we celebrate Christmas," Baerwolf said. "Jesus shared his love with us; now we have this opportunity to share that same love with other people who are hurting."

The food bank needs canned goods of all kinds, cereals, dry beans and pasta, personal hygiene products and cleaning supplies. Donations can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. this Saturday at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 310 E. Main St., East Dundee, and Sunday, 9 to 10 a.m. and 12 to 1 p.m., at the school building across the street.

You don't even have to get out of your car; volunteers will be on hand to take your gifts for the people of New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Memories of 2007

I recently emailed a number of area pastors, asking them to pick out some of their churches' outstanding memories from 2007. It was encouraging to hear back from churches large and small. Here are the highlights:

• Elgin's New Covenant Fellowship scheduled eight days of renewal and revival meetings last month instead of traditional Advent activities. "Though we feared poor turnout due to Yuletide festivities," Pastor Mark Ahrens said, "the opposite occurred."

Attendance averaged almost 50 percent more than regular Sunday morning services, Ahrens said, "as people of all ages experienced God's healing in their physical bodies, their emotions and their relationships."

The final night, there wasn't a dry eye in the house, he said, as a young man and his father reconciled their broken relationship and forgave each other publicly --leading others to forgive past hurts, too.

• Larkin Avenue Baptist Church in Elgin also is excited about changed lives last year. "Our church is small in number," said Pastor Richard Sanders, "with approximately 45 members. Despite the smallness, we have seen three people commit their lives to Christ."

Other outstanding blessings, he said, are the many Judson University students who worship with the church, a new building-sharing arrangement with a Hispanic congregation, Iglesia Bethania Bautista, and an invitation to stage a living Nativity scene at Elgin's Winter Wonderland.

"It was an honor to represent the true meaning behind Christmas," Sanders said.

• A highlight for the small congregation at CrossWinds Church of Elgin, celebrating its second annual "Christmas for Others," was the chance to bless a local family of five at an especially critical time. Church members purchased everything on the family's Christmas wish list and even stocked the kitchen, said Pastor Stephen Puett.

Unfortunately, there's more, but it makes the church's outreach all the more poignant. "The sad part of the story," Puett said, "is that the mom had been dealing with brain cancer. The day after we gave them all their gifts, she went back into the hospital and passed away."

• St. Mary Catholic Church of Huntley also found joy in playing Santa through its "Giving Tree." Parishioners took tags from the tree that listed gift ideas for needy families in the community and tried to fill those requests.

By the time the shopping was done and the presents sorted, wrapped and distributed, the congregation had blessed more than 500 people with 3,000 gifts.

• A work trip to New Orleans was a highlight for three United Methodist churches in Elgin, according to Pastor Jon Hutchison of First United Methodist. His congregation, along with Epworth UMC and Wesley UMC, sent volunteers in November to assist in rebuilding the city.

"The greatest part of this story is the reception that we experienced," Hutchison said. "Folks were not down, were not victims, were not without hope. The joy that they offered us was overwhelming.

"Joy knows no economic class or social status," Hutchison said. "Joy is from the heart, and it is freely given. That's a lesson we church folks ought to always remember as we begin a new year."