December 18, 2008

CHICAGO – Hurricane Ike survivors lined up early Dec. 13 to receive holiday gifts distributed at First Lutheran Church, Galveston, Texas – a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Among the items given away: Christmas trees, decorations, bicycles, children's board games, dolls, blankets, winter coats, canned food and gift cards.

Church member Sandra Stewart, 63, said one man told her, "If you had not done this, there would not be Christmas for my kids."

Immanuel Lutheran Church of Killeen, Texas, provided the bulk of gifts, aided by $1,300 in support from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Thrivent is a Minneapolis-based not-for-profit financial services organization serving members of the ELCA and other Lutheran church bodies.

"Our congregation has been collecting gifts all year long," said Jackie Clark, 53, of the Killeen congregation, 240 miles northwest of Galveston.

Ike cut a deadly path across the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts in mid-September. At least 72 people died, including 37 in Texas.

The eye of the storm smacked Galveston, a community of 57,000 residents. Winds whipped up to 110 mph; tidal waters surged across the island. Seventy-five percent of the island's buildings suffered structural damage – a staggering $8.1 billion in insured losses. Most property was either uninsured or underinsured.

"For people who lost everything, this event made their Christmas," said the Rev. Doug Guthier, pastor of the Galveston congregation. "The people from the Killeen church brought an amazing amount of quality stuff – more than we ever imagined."

First Lutheran opened its doors to Lutherans in need at 10 a.m., then to the entire city at 10:30. Several of the 131 people in line arrived two hours before the event.

More than a dozen children received bicycles donated by Lucy Thomas, 63, Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Ames, Iowa. She refurbished the bikes, then hauled them to Galveston a few weeks ago.

"This was a way to do something directly for the people," she said.

Before Ike, Galveston generated $700 million a year in tourism. Today, many businesses remain closed, families are without homes and some neighborhoods are still piled with debris.

The U.S. economic crisis is also hampering recovery. Recently the island's largest employer, University of Texas Medical Branch, announced 3,800 layoffs.

The Killeen congregation hosted a Christmas outreach for the past 12 years, usually at its own church. Clark said she'd become discouraged by people who didn't need help but "had learned to work the system."

So this year the church reached out to Galveston.

"I just wanted to relieve their burdens a bit," said Clark who, three decades ago, received help from an agency at Christmas for her young military family.

The theme of displacement runs through the biblical accounts of Christmas, from Mary and Joseph's struggle for shelter to the flight into Egypt to protect little Jesus.

"We see how God will see us through tough times," the Galveston pastor said. "Christmas is about hope – a message people desperately need to hear in the aftermath of the storm."

ELCA News Service