Mercy forever.

Hannah Schumacher sorts through some of the titles that will be for sale at “Waves of Books,” a fund-raiser the teen is helping coordinate April 9 at North Allegheny Senior High School, Wexford, Pa., to benefit LCMS World Relief and Human Care’s disaster response in Japan.

by LCMS World Relief and Human Care

As a magnitude-7.4 aftershock shook Japan on April 7, a Pennsylvania teen is one of many LCMS members working on fundraisers to help ease suffering in the beleaguered country nearly one month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Hannah Schumacher, 17, collected books for an upcoming benefit sale at her high school as the latest and one of the most powerful of more than 1,000 aftershocks hit Japan, rattling nerves but causing no damage, according to early news reports.

Update!

“Waves of Books” raised $423 for disaster relief, with donations still coming in, says Hannah Schumacher, who coordinated the book sale with her Key Club, April 9, at North Allegheny Senior High School, Wexford, Pa. Thanks to Hannah and all the book buyers for helping LCMS World Relief and Human Care share Christ’s mercy in Japan!

“Why sit at our desks when we can do something to help?” said Schumacher, who is coordinating the “Waves of Books” fundraiser in partnership with her Pennsylvania high school Key Club to benefit LCMS World Relief and Human Care’s (WR-HC) disaster response in Japan.

So far, Schumacher has collected more than 700 books to sell on April 9 at North Allegheny Senior High School in Wexford. As Key Club vice president, Schumacher says her primary goal is to witness Christian love to others through community service.

“If I can do that through the church, so much the better,” says Schumacher, the daughter of Rev. Michael Schumacher, pastor of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, and Carol Schumacher, a teacher at Redeemer Lutheran School in Oakmont.

Schumacher said she appreciates that she can tell her book sale customers that WR-HC is helping Japanese Lutheran partners who are now sending weekly shipments of food and water to earthquake and tsunami survivors.

“Those people have gone through so much,” Schumacher said of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese living in emergency shelters and evacuees who have fled their homes because of the nuclear power plant accident.

The Pennsylvania book drive is just one of many ways LCMS members are generating support to help ease suffering since the March 11 disaster that has killed a reported 12,157 people with more than 15,000 still missing.

At Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Solon, Ohio, a benefit bake sale on March 26 has raised nearly $4,500 for the LCMS response in Japan, with supporters continuing to send donations. The congregation hosted the benefit the same day families flocked to the church for a popular Christian youth basketball program.

“One of the best things about our event was the interaction between our church members, the local Japanese and Asian community and the families of the Upward basketball players who chatted with them and bought baked goods throughout the day . . .,” says James Domingo, an Our Redeemer elder who spearheaded the fundraiser.

A local television station covered the bake sale, adding to the congregation’s outreach opportunity. “The Japanese volunteers taught the children how to make origami and also wrote the kids’ names in Japanese,” Domingo said in an email to WR-HC. “That was a big hit!”

Domingo previously worked in Japan, where he met his wife, Junko. The couple worshipped at Japanese Lutheran churches and their daughter, now 5, was baptized at a West Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church congregation in Nishinomiya.

To date, LCMS members across the country have provided more than $600,000 for disaster response in Japan.

To contribute to the Synod’s response to the Japan earthquake and tsunami:

• mail checks (noting “Japan Disaster Relief” in the memo line) to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, P.O. Box 66861, St. Louis, MO 63166-6861.
• call toll-free 888-930-4438.
• give online at Disaster Relief Fund for Japan.

Download an updated Japan disaster response bulletin insert here.

To learn more, please visit LCMS World Relief and Human Care at www.lcms.org/worldrelief.