This Thanksgiving holiday–along with family and good food–will include a hectic race to get packed and ready to go to Liberia to see your generous gifts at work.
Eva Yeo, Women of the ELCA’s director for membership, I and nine others, including Mary Jo Mettler, will go to Liberia to take part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 30 at Phebe Hospital to celebrate the installation of its solar energy grid. Mettler was the force behind the Phebe solar project.
In 2012, as a part of the Women of the ELCA 25th Anniversary travel tour, we were there to honor Women of the ELCA’s longstanding relationship with the Lutheran Church in Liberia Women’s Fellowship (LCLWF). While there, we gave them one of our first Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls global seed grants.
Fruitful journey
Little did we know how fruitful this journey would be. Women on the trip saw a need at Phebe Hospital and took action to correct it.
A resolution offered by the Northeastern Minnesota Synodical Women’s Organization at the Ninth Triennial Convention (2014) in Charlotte, N.C., called for prayer and help to raise funds for solar energy for Phebe Hospital. A portion of the offerings collected at the Tenth Triennial Convention and Gathering went to the Phebe Hospital project.
Phebe Hospital was founded by the Lutheran church in 1921, in partnership with the Methodist and Episcopalian churches. Phebe serves a population of approximately 450,000 people. The hospital used to be powered solely by diesel generators, consuming in excess of 90,000 gallons of fuel annually at $4.50 a gallon.
Thanks for your support
Let me thank you again for supporting this campaign financially and with prayers. In March 2017, solar panels were installed at Phebe Hospital. We are thankful and excited to be able to see the fruits of our labor.
Pray for those traveling to Liberia as we gear up to continue on this solar energy journey with a new campaign Currents for Curran. (See more about that project here.) Our trip will include a trip to Curran Hospital as they look forward to getting solar energy.
As you give thanks during this Thanksgiving holiday, remember Women of the ELCA with a Thankoffering so we can continue to help others.
Valora K Starr is director for discipleship for Women of the ELCA. The featured photo is of the group who went on the 25th anniversary trip to Liberia in 2012.
Lutheran women in the U.S. have partnered with our Liberian sisters for over 100 years. Women of the ELCA holds two small endowments created in the early 1900s that benefit ministries in Liberia. Imagine that: for more than 100 years the generosity of Lutheran women in the U.S. has been blessing the ministries of our Liberian sisters and brothers. I often wonder what our legacy will be 100 years from now. What do you imagine?