Concordia Publishing House is inviting its customers to help send up to 20,000 children’s religious books to Haiti.
Every $10 donation received in CPH’s “Help for Haiti” campaign — now through April 11 — will be used to provide a $4 contribution to LCMS relief efforts and s
ix copies of the Arch Book Jesus Blesses the Children, translated into French. The books, produced on heavy-duty, coated paper designed to last through Haiti’s rainy season, will be distributed to families, along with material aid, through congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti, an LCMS partner church body.
The effort is being conducted with LCMS World Relief and Human Care through CPH’s evangelism ministry, Concordia Gospel Outreach (CGO).
“With school suspended indefinitely in Haiti, we’ve heard reports [from those serving in congregations] of parents asking for printed materials for their children, in addition to continued needs for food, water, and basic necessities,” said Gretchen M. Jameson, director of corporate communications at CPH. “The CGO Help for Haiti plan is going to meet a real need, and that matters to us.”
Some 200 copies of the English version of the book were distributed by LCMS President Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick, with assistance from Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti (ELCH) President Rev. Marky Kessa and one or two other ELCH pastors, at a “tent city” during Kieschnick’s March 1-2 visit to Haiti. The Synod president said the book was well-received by the children, who were eager to get their own copies.
“These children, who have absolutely nothing, were very anxious and quite happy to receive something they could call their own,” Kieschnick said. “My prayer is that the pictures inside the booklet showing Jesus blessing little children, together with the words of the booklet itself, will assure these children of God’s great love for them in Jesus Christ, even and especially in the aftermath of an earthquake that has radically changed their lives, in many cases leaving them orphaned by the death of parents and other family members.”
CPH President and CEO Dr. Bruce G. Kintz said that although CPH’s role is “to provide a publishing ministry,” the company also has “daily connections with thousands of customers online and on the phone who are looking for ways to support disaster relief in Haiti, while also sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
“We want to connect these people with a way to help,” Kintz said.
To make a donation, visit www.concordiaoutreach.org or call 800-325-3040. Contributions also may be mailed to Concordia Gospel Outreach, Help for Haiti, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, MO 63118.
Posted March 10, 2010
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