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The Reverend of relief: Meet the man behind the Orphan Grain Train
By Tara Grunig-Perre
There’s nothing in the world like the sounds of hunger and misery.
Sounds that can be the haunting cries of children too young to understand why they are hungry and sick. Children too young to understand that their country has been crippled by the fall of Communism.
Those cries of Russian children were motivation enough for one man to start a movement now supported by thousands, if not millions-the Orphan Grain Train.
The Rev. Ray Wilke, an AAL member, and his wife, Lois, from Norfolk, Nebraska, went to Russia as part of a Lutheran Hour Ministries’ work project in 1992 to help build places for seminary instruction and worship, but while there, they found an even greater purpose.
“What we saw there was really very appalling,” Ray says. “It fractured us. We were just overwhelmed with the pain and misery that was present.”
The Wilkes visited Russia for three weeks and discovered a nation in turmoil as the Iron Curtain fell.
“A lot of their capital had been invested in the military and very little had been invested in people comforts and necessities,” Ray says. “The nation was on its knees even then, and it hasn’t got much better.”
Upon returning to the United States, the Wilkes immediately began telling people about the horrors they had witnessed in the former Soviet Union. Their stories always were followed by a resounding, “We have to do something!”
“Before we knew it, we had $60,000 on the table and the Orphan Grain Train was formed,” Ray says. “We immediately began sending food, clothing and medical supplies.”
But Ray couldn’t do it alone and sought the help of other Norfolk residents, in particular, AAL members Clayton Andrews and Dale Pinnt.
“He came to me and asked, ‘Do you want to do probably the greatest thing you’ve every done in your life?’ ” says Andrews, a Norfolk businessman. “When I heard what he wanted to do, I never hesitated, and it took off from there.”
So Andrews devised a skeletal plan for shipping the donated items to Russia using his expertise from his business, Andrews Van Lines, a worldwide mover of household goods, while Pinnt began managing the warehouse in Norfolk, which stores and prepares donated items for shipment.
Since its beginning, the Orphan Grain Train has expanded in volunteers and areas served to include other parts of the world and the United States, anywhere people are suffering from natural disasters and financial hard times.
At any time, there are six to 10 40-foot containers filled with medicine, food or clothes en route for those in need.
The people who help Ray with the Orphan Grain Train are quick to credit him.
“He’s a visionary with big dreams,” says Bruce Wurdeman, an AAL member and assistant director of Volunteer Opportunities at Lutheran Hour Ministries, a sister organization to the Orphan Grain Train. “A lot of people have great ideas but can’t make them happen. Ray is successful because he is able to put the people around him to make things happen.”
But Ray says it’s not about him.
“It’s about all the people,” he says. “It’s not some magic from Ray Wilke. It’s the Lord’s doing.”
Coordinating people for the Lord’s work is definitely Ray’s strong point. In addition to his volunteer role in the Orphan Grain Train, he is a full-time pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Norfolk. There he guides his 965-member congregation with the assistance of a board of directors.
“He’s just a very dedicated man,” says Andrews, a member of Grace Lutheran’s board. “He takes care of his church and helps a lot of people through the Orphan Grain Train. He has a big heart and likes to help people-he’s a true disciple.”
And to top it off, Ray farms with his son, Ray Wilke II, in Norfolk. The duo farm 500 acres to provide feed for their dairy and beef cattle.
“Farming is my exercise,” says Ray Wilke. “And it’s something I love doing.”
Lois Wilke understands her husband’s motivation and helps out when she can at the Orphan Grain Train, the church and the farm, even though she’s a full-time registered nurse at Faith Regional Hospital in Norfolk.
“We do it to help people who are less fortunate than we are,” she says. “I think God expects that of us.”
Ray won’t soon give up of any of his commitments.
“I’ll do it all as long as I have the strength,” he says. “It’s not something you can retire from easily. The cries of the children are everywhere. How can you know that and do nothing?”
Tara Grunig-Perre works at AAL’s home office. She is a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Reprinted by permission of the author from the January-February 2000 AAL Correspondent magazine.