Every year, Concordia Gospel Outreach partners with Lutheran organizations to provide them with resources and support to continue serving their communities. These nonprofit groups span all across the country, helping to bring the Gospel and love of Christ to those in need.
A Place of Refuge
One of these organizations is A Place of Refuge, a home for pregnant and nursing mothers in need of safety and support. A Place of Refuge can house up to four women at a time, providing them with shelter, meals, medical care, and more. The women can come any time during their pregnancy and stay up to six months after giving birth. They learn skills necessary for supporting themselves and their children so they are prepared to leave when their stay is over. A Place of Refuge also holds baby showers for the expecting mothers, who are celebrated and receive gifts to help them get started once they move on to independent living arrangements. Finally, the most important aspect of A Place of Refuge’s mission is sharing God’s love with the women they serve.
Executive Director Deaconess Grace Rao says it is a joy to see how the mothers grow spiritually over the course of their stay.
“Our goal is to help these young mothers achieve positive change in their lives, and that starts by giving them support and showing them the love of Christ,” Rao said. “Seeing that change is the best part for me. One woman told me she wants a catechism, and another just announced that she wants to be baptized along with her child.”
Rao also spoke about the need for more funds and resources to continue the mission.
“A Place of Refuge is a nonprofit. Our funds come from donations or our resale shop, Blessed Again Resale. We are always looking for help and ways to make sure we can continue to provide a high level of support for the women,” Rao said. “CGO has been a great blessing to me and the home. They were a great support when I was in the Synod as well as now. They have sent us over $3000 worth of resources and I didn’t pay a single penny.”
CGO was able to provide this multitude of resources thanks to a gift from the LWML National Convention offering.
LCMS Prison Ministry
Another group Concordia Gospel Outreach has provided support for is the LCMS Prison Ministry, specifically the Pacific Southwest District. Chaplain Arthur Stevens is the coordinator for the district. In an interview, Stevens spoke about how large the mission field is and how important support for this ministry truly is.
“In our district, there are around six or seven federal prisons, plus state, county, and city jails. It comes out to about 100,000 inmates that we’re trying to reach,” Stevens stated. “Satan believes he owns these prisons, that it’s his domain. He doesn’t like it when people like me or other chaplains come in, and he gives us a hard time. It’s a spiritual battle.”
Chaplain Stevens currently teaches a class for male prisoners called “Christianity Explored.” The course takes about five months to complete and can be credited toward the prisoners’ releases.
“We just talk about who Jesus is; a lot of the guys have only ever heard His name as a swear word,” Stevens explained. “When they hear that God loves them, that’s new, and it hits them hard.”
According to Stevens, a huge blessing for his ministry has been donations of Luther’s Small Catechism from CGO. With the size of the mission field, it’s impossible for chaplains to reach every prisoner all the time, but the catechisms allow inmates to study the Bible on their own because it provides explanations for the Scripture they’re reading.
“CGO and the LWML have been a great support to us. I’ve brought the Bibles and catechisms they’ve given me to the prisons I visit, and I’ve sent them out to others in the district as well,” Stevens said. “Recently, I’ve received some Portals of Prayer devotionals, and those have been really popular resources as well.”
Continued Service
The LCMS Prison Ministry and A Place of Refuge are just a few of the organizations that Concordia Gospel Outreach has been able to provide with resources and support. There is more work to be done and more people who need to hear the Gospel and experience God’s love. Handing out Bibles or devotions may seem like a small thing, but it is life-changing to those who have never heard the Word.
1 John 3:16–18 says:
By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
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