Presented by Brad Van Horn at the January 19 council meeting

This is Brad’s first year on Easter’s Church Council.  He is liaison to
the Global Mission committee and chaired the Nyanzwa Hunger Relief
Appeal conducted at Easter this past fall.  Brad and wife, Tammy have 3
grown children and 3 grandchildren.

Thank you God for the people of Easter!

Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Easter Lutheran Church has been working on the Nyanzwa famine relief for about six months; with 810,000 meals in transit, Easter has made a real difference in the lives of 5,000 very important people in Tanzania – they received the message that someone cares!  !  In addition, Easter sent $5,000 to help buy 22,000 pounds of corn for interim distribution until the containers arrive and sent $9,000 for seed for planting this year’s crop.

The people of Easter have responded by sharing their blessings in a most selfless way!  For more good news, it has been reported from Iringa that the rain has started and the crops are expected to grow!  Thanks be to God!

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Everyday the haunting images are broadcast from the tiny nation of Haiti.  Most reports place the human toll at over 100,000 for those killed immediately and during the week following the earthquake; perhaps the most despairing news is that by most reports, a true count will never be completed – a calculated way of saying many are lost without identification.  It’s self evident that the toll from starvation and disease will be much, much higher and will reveal itself in the weeks, months, and possibly years to come.  It will unfold in agonizingly slow motion before our eyes as one news reporter after another takes their rotation to Haiti for “the story.”


For a brief, foolish moment in the week following the quake, I wondered, “how will the people of Easter respond?” and “after a major famine relief effort in Nyanzwa, will Easter be able to help the people of Haiti in significant ways?”

My foolishness was addressed last weekend as I watched so many people drop checks and cash in the boxes designated for Haiti relief at the Lake and on the Hill.  I was further humbled as several people asked “what can we do – what will Easter do?”

I was especially struck by one Easter member who said to me, “I can get together a hundred non-Easter people for a Feed My Starving Children packing event – how can we organize it?”  Caught off-guard, I gave a self-centered, non-committal answer like, “let me check it out and get back to you.”  For that gentleman, I revise my answer: “We, the people of Easter, will make it happen.”  I have little doubt we will make many more things happen too.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ.

Thank you God for the people
of Easter!