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SusannahCunninghamSenior Director,Building ResilientCommunitiesJohn EggenSenior Director,Annual GivingHOW TO GIVEOnlineELCA.org/GiveWHELCA.org/GiveLDRPhone800-638-3522MailMake checks payable to%u201cELCA World Hunger%u201d or%u201cLutheran Disaster Response%u201dand mail to:ELCAP.O. Box 1809Merrifield, VA 22116-8009CONTACT USEmailhunger@elca.orgdisaster@elca.orgPhone800-638-3522, ext. 2616VIEW THIS ISSUEONLINEELCA.org/hunger/resources%u00a9 2025 Evangelical LutheranChurch in America. ELCAcongregations may reproducethis newsletter in part or inits entirety.%u201cBear one another%u2019s burdens, and in this way youwill fulfill the law of Christ.%u201d%u2014Galatians 6:2Dear friend,Wherever this issue of %u201cLifelines%u201d reaches you, I hope it renews your faith inour community, in what we can do together. Right now, so many messagesdescend on us daily to tell us that we are alone, that we are strangers toone another, and that a movement of cultural solipsism %u2014 or even cruelty %u2014is winning over a culture of belonging and care.When I look at these pages, I see the opposite.I see people showing up for each other when they have lost their home,their mother, their country, their livelihood. Through your gifts to ELCAWorld Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response, you are demonstratingwhat it is to love one another, to see the face of God in our neighbor %u2014 theone next door and the one recovering from disaster an ocean away.I hope that, should I lose my country and need to flee, I will have theresilience to start over, as Roza did in Kyrgyzstan, or find a refuge as kindand life-affirming as Casa de la Misericordia, along the Arizona-Mexicoborder. Or that my children will always be surrounded by love as Angel isin Indonesia, that they will never be defined by their health status, and thattheir ability to be children remains, above all, sacred. I pray that no matterwhere our young ones are born, the dream of education is attainable %u2014 thatthe destiny of the next great physicist and pioneer to change our world forthe better will not be pushed off course by poverty and inaction. It is myearnest desire that, should any of our families lose their home to disaster,we will find shelter amid our community and rebuild stronger and moreresilient to weather the next storm.Your generosity gives us every reason to hope, providing a flame to lightthe way forward for our communities in these tumultuous and sometimesgut-wrenching times. When we are pulled in by news stories that demandever more attention, it is good to remember you and our partners are thegrounding story of our community.In Christ%u2019s service,Susannah CunninghamSusannah CunninghamSenior Director, Building Resilient Communities2 | LifeLines