Love – in dangerous places

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South Sudan, Burundi and Somalia are some of the toughest and most dangerous places on earth for an aid agency to work. Yet, through ALWS, our Australian and New Zealand Lutheran family is there.

Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya are refuge to hundreds of thousands of people forcibly displaced from their homes, desperately seeking safety. Through ALWS, our Lutheran family is there, ‘welcoming the stranger’.

ALWS delivers practical care where people need help most. In 2018 alone, more than 54,000 refugees were supported at Kakuma and Dadaab camps in Kenya.

ALWS brings love to life in the kind of care described in Proverbs 31:8,9 – ‘But you must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless’.

This has been our privilege for nearly 70 years.

Take Burundi as one example. Burundi is one of the five poorest countries in the world, but it is not forgotten by the Lutheran family. In 2018, 6654 people received direct support, and another 37,715 enjoyed the flow-on benefits of Lutheran kindness – increasing food production, starting businesses and building houses.

This life-transforming work can only happen through the kindness of everyday Lutherans. In 2018 more than 10,000 Gifts of Grace were given. Lutheran schools donated nearly $200,000 to help people through ALWS – and were inspired by ALWS speakers who met 7000 students face-to-face in 206 school presentations.

What all this kindness and hard work through ALWS ultimately means is that those whom Proverbs describes as ‘poor and homeless’, ‘helpless’, and having ‘no hope’ can say: ‘My life has changed!’

Invite an ALWS guest speaker or find out more at www.alws.org.au

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