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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shirley Freyer
Concordia Lutheran Ministries
Tel: 1-724-352-1571 x8266
sfreyer@concordialm.org

Concordia Conducts A Prayer Service for Kenyan Crisis

Cabot, PA – The Kenyan crisis has directly affected Concordia Lutheran Ministries, as last year a fund called Angel Tear was established for mission work both here in western Pennsylvania as well as Lutheran Church Missouri Synod missions particularly in Kenya and the Sudan.

On Tuesday evening, Jan. 29, a prayer service was led by Concordia Chaplain Jack Hartman in the Haven II chapel.  Independent living residents, staff and board members were invited to “lift up” the victims in Africa and learn more about Concordia’s involvement. Following the service, Board member Milton Scott, who has visited Africa three times on behalf of Concordia, spoke of his experiences and the correspondence he has received from his friends from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), located in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum. 

He read an e-mail from Evan, the congregation treasurer telling him, “my family and I got much affected” (by the Kenyan elections and resulting violence). “We got displaced from our home and had to move to Nairobi and we’re living in a place with no window panes, no electricity, no toilets … but we’re faring better than many.” 

Scott related another e-mail he received from Molly, an attractive, unmarried capable young woman in her twenties who was studying hotel management and has two years of college. She was volunteering at a guesthouse in the same area and wrote, “am still alive in Kenya. Life is hard, as I can’t find any work.  All my parent’s businesses were destroyed.  May God bless you.”

Potent words came from Concordia President & CEO Keith Frndak to close the event, as he reflected on the power of one gift, one dream, one prayer as it relates to the history of Concordia. He noted that Concordia continues to bear fruit from that seed planted way back in 1881. 

“Who knows how many lives and how many people can be touched by one prayer, by one gift?” he asked. “Africa could be evangelized by an orphan.”

For more information about Concordia missions and the Angel Tear Fund, please call 724/352-1571, ext. 8266.