Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Livonia hosted several hosted Lutheran Social Services of Michigan foster parents and their families on March 24, providing respite, a good meal and some entertainment. In the afternoon, teen and adult volunteers did crafts and games with the children so the foster parents could take a few hours off. Then the families came together for dinner.

Al and Cynthia Lucas attended with four members of their extended family. Al recently retired from Chrysler but maintains his position as pastor at Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit. He and his wife have been foster parents with Lutheran Social Services for more than 20 years. He estimates they have cared for over 100 children. They adopted several, and many of their foster children have gone on to college. With them at Holy Trinity were their daughter Shania, 9, and three sisters, aged 5 to 8, who they are adopting. Michelle Wells is an unmarried grandmother caring for two of her grandchildren. She also has two foster children, 10-year-old Peter and 13-year-old Nicole.  She has been a foster parent for many years, and is often asked to take on a case in an emergency situation. She hopes all four of her charges can attend Lutheran Social Services’ camp for foster children this summer.

“It was humbling to spend time with these people who have opened their homes to the very vulnerable young people here in our area,” said Paul Drenkow, a longtime Lutheran Social Services volunteer and a member of Holy Trinity. “It was inspiring to see Holy Trinity members reach out to these families—especially our young people who spent the day playing with the foster children. I also enjoyed seeing Jack Bailey, who provided entertainment, delighting the young girls by dancing with them.”

Audrey Williams-Burton, director of Lutheran Social Services’ programs for children and families in Southeast Michigan, says there are about 14,000 children in foster care in Michigan. She noted that children become “eligible” for foster care at all ages. There is a critical need for homes for teenagers, who will “age out” of foster care support when they reach 18. Host families are needed to house these youth and be a role model so they can become independent adults. In this situation, the host families do not need to go through the same training as foster parents, but do receive compensation.

Members of Holy Trinity know the value of a strong family. “By continuing to support Lutheran Social Services’ foster care program, we can help can help those in need experience the same feeling,” said Drenkow.

Mary Muliett, director of Services for Children & Families in Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor, attended a basketball game at Wayland High School Thursday night and came back with a check for $2,000 and load of stuffed animals.

Lutheran Social Services became the beneficiary of the school’s annual fundraiser at the suggestion of student Mercedes Rookus, whose parents have adopted many children from foster care through Lutheran Adoption Service. Mercedes noted that when her younger siblings came into care, they received stuffed animals that they still sleep with.

The school council asked the students to bring stuffed animals to Thursday’s game, when they presented a check for the funds they raised. At halftime, the stuffed animals were tossed onto the court. The students also wore T-shirts that said “It’s our time to be heroes.”

The Southwest Michigan program will use the funds to purchase gift cards for children coming into care and bus tokens to help birth parents get to appointments. Every child who comes into care will be able to select a stuffed animal from the supply donated by the students. “Having great partnerships with our caregivers provides wonderful opportunities to enhance the services we provide,” said Mary (at right in the photo).

Thank you, Holy Trinity! In honor of their 50th anniversary, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Livonia will help our foster care program in Southeast Michigan. The church presented a check for $500 to Audrey Williams-Burton, director of Services for Children & Families in Southeast Mcihigan, to buy winter clothing for the children they serve. The church will also hold an foster parent appreciation event at the church on March 24.

As they have since 1984, the families of students at Cedar Crest Academy in Clarkston will “adopt” some of the families being served by Lutheran Social Services of Michigan at Christmas, providing them a bounty of gifts. This year, the Cedar Crest families will travel to Lutheran Social Services’ Refugee Services training center in Madison Heights on Saturday, Dec. 10, laden with gifts for seven Iraqi refugee families. The school families will meet the families they’ve “adopted,” share a pizza lunch and then deliver the gifts to the refugees’ homes.

“We bring one wrapped gift for each of the children with us to the party and leave the rest of the gifts in our cars, because there’s a lot,” said Karen Jbara, whose three children attended Cedar Crest Academy, an independent private pre-K – 8th grade school. “Before you know it, the kids are kicking around a soccer ball or working on a puzzle or game together. It provides an opportunity for the children to bond and have something in common.”

The Cedar Crest families enjoy learning more about the refugee families, sometimes with the help of an interpreter. “It’s especially educational for the children,” said Jbara. “It’s humbling for them to realize that these people have needs for things like sheets and pots and pans that are very basic.”

Cedar Crest has been adopting families for Christmas since the school opened. “The opportunity to share our blessings with local families is valuable to us,” said school director Bette Moen. “How proud our students are of the mounting heap of needed items in their classroom, which will disappear into good hands. For the youngest of us, it is an unknown story to learn the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants.’ Oh, the lessons to be learned!”

Today is National Philanthropy Day, and three of our volunteers will be honored at the annual dinner of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Detroit Chapter. Jean Schluckebier is the volunteer manager of the ACTION Thrift Store in Saginaw. She took a floundering enterprise and made it profitable once more so that it can support programs for people in need all over the state. She freshened the look of the store, improved the merchandise mix and helped start a statewide system of donation drives. Matt and Richelle Pedersen "adopted" a room at the Wayne County Family Center homeless shelter so that it could be renovated and refurnished. They donated a truck through our Motorvation Drive vehicle donation program. And they introduced 30 of their friends to Lutheran Social Services at a reception in their home. Matt served as a trustee for the LSSM Foundation and is now a member of the Lutheran Social Services of Michigan board of directors. Congratulations to our Distringuished Volunteers!

Harriett Erickson, 88, lives at Luther Community Manor in Alpena, a HUD-subsidized senior apartment community. She has worked with a group of quilters at nearby Immanuel Lutheran Church since 2006. Each of the 10 to 15 members of the quilters group has a job: some cut material, some tie, some finish the edges. Harriett sews the pieces together. She recently completed her 221^st quilt top. The group donates their quilts to local people in need, such as families that have had a house fire. They also send their quilts all over the world through Lutheran World Relief. The group’s quilts have gone to Hurricane Katrina victims and to soldiers in Afghanistan. Some of the people who receive the quilts have nothing, says Harriett. Soldiers especially appreciate these handmade “comforts from home.”

SWELL – Sharing With Everyone Lutheran Love – is a swell group of volunteers from Lutheran churches in the Kalamazoo area who come together to support the children in Lutheran Social Services’ foster care program. Over the summer, they put together 70 backpacks for the children in Lutheran Social Services’ care in southwest Michigan, stuffing them with everything a child needs to begin the school year right. The backpacks (which seemed almost bigger than the children who received them) contained toiletries such as soap, toothbrush and toothpaste as well as school supplies like notebooks, glue, scissors, crayons, pens, pencils, markers and more. Foster parents receive a daily stipend to provide for all the children’s needs, but at the beginning of the school year, when children need so much all at once, paying for everything can be a struggle. “Our children’s faces lit up when they saw their backpacks,” reported Mary Muliett, director of Services for Children & Families in Southwest Michigan. The Kalamazoo-area foster care program has been growing quickly. As a result of the Children’s Rights settlement, many foster care cases are being transferred from the Department of Human Services to private providers like Lutheran Social Services.

Hi!  I’m Doug Kahl, LSSM’s Organizational Chaplain. The writings that will appear in the "Faith at Work" blog series are intended to encourage the use of what we believe in our work lives. They will, I hope, also encourage dialogue about the public use of what is often thought of as  personal – our faith.  Welcome to the conversation.

BLOGGING ON LIVING THAT REFLECTS OUR FAITH

The tumult in the public square these days has me wondering about living a life that reflects faith in a nation that has a spiritual/Christian foundation.  I’m not seeing the faith that builds and maintains living for the furthering of the common good influencing our decision making.

The Bible is filled with stories about and “formulas” for what it means to live out our faith, especially for those of us who are Christian.  My favorite “formula” is recorded in the Old Testament book of Micah, chapter 6, verse 8.  It reads, with my additions in parentheses, like this:

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice (making individuals, communities, and the cosmos whole by upholding goodness and impartiality), to love mercy (when we are spared from judgment and harm), and to walk humbly (free from pride, knowing that I am in inadequate but also knowing who I am in Christ) with God.”

In a recent New York Times opinion piece these statistics caught my eye:

1.       400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans.

2.      Average middle class family income has stagnated over the past 30 years while the richest 1 percent have seen income skyrocket.

3.      Political scientists have shown that it’s not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict votes in the Senate.

What’s all this say about justice, mercy, and humility (the very heart of faith) in America today?

From The Saginaw News, Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 3:30 PM

SAGINAW —  The Action Thrift Store is getting a facelift with a little help from some Birch Run teachers.

Jean Schluckebier is director of the Action Thrift Store, 2114 N. Michigan in Saginaw, a resale shop that gets many of its items from local Lutheran churches, and said a new look was needed outside.

Click to read full story and see all the photos!

Here is a wonderful video about a generous landlord, Julio Puzzuoli, who is helping Episcopal Migration Ministries and its affiliate, Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, provide low-cost housing to new refugees: http://www.vimeo.com/24183319.