Regional Divisions
Missouri West Division
Fall 2008
Rev. Alfred Rodewald of the Missouri West Division (with clipboard) asked four members of his family to help him and Steve Krause load 810 filled boxes onto an Orphan Grain Train semi-trailer on November 8. The family had gathered from California, Iowa, Kansas City, and South Africa for his granddaughter’s wedding later in the day.
Winter 2008
Orphan Grain Train, Missouri West Division at Concordia transferred 900 boxes of humanitarian goods on Feb. 29 to Orphan Grain Train International at Norfolk, Neb., for distribution to where most needed worldwide. People in western Missouri had donated the men’s, women’s and children’s clothing. The clothing was sorted and packed by men and women volunteers in the Concordia area and at Jefferson City, Lone Elm and Norborne. Everet Hinck, Jim Evert, Homer Nierman and Robert Frerking of Concordia placed a total of 20 wrapped pallets each containing 45 boxes of goods onto an Orphan Grain Train semi-trailer from Norfolk.
Fall 2006
Orphan Grain Train Missouri-West Regional Division received 3,950 items of children’s clothing from the June 23-25, 2006, Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Missouri District convention ingathering in Columbia, Mo.
District Vice President Martha Kleindienst of Jefferson City, whose service committee arranged the ingathering, reported the items ranged from infant sizes to size six and most items were new or nearly new.
Also received through the ingathering were 177 new pairs of children’s shoes, donated by Darling Shoe Co. of St. Louis, and $262 in donations to help Orphan Grain Train with shipping costs.
The service committee sorted and boxed the donated items, then loaded the boxes into vehicles of women who would be returning to Concordia from the convention. The boxes were brought to the Concordia sorting center and were later trucked to Orphan Grain Train headquarters in Norfolk, Neb., for distribution.
The convention ingathering also brought in 4,025 skeins of yarn. The yarn was divided, with half of it going to the women’s prison at Vandalia and half to a women’s knitting group at Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The women at Abiding Savior knit afghans for Orphan Grain Train and other humanitarian groups.
Missouri-West President Alfred Rodewald (left) and Roger Kammeyer in a recent photo with a trailer fully loaded with more than 1,200 boxes of winter clothing ready for delivery worldwide.
Spring 2006
Over 2,790 volunteer hours with a calculated value of over $28,000 of service time were contributed to Orphan Grain Train Missouri West Division in 2005. Warehouse hours are calculated at $9 an hour; pickup driver hours at $12; and semi driver hours at $15.
The teams that sorted and packed goods last year were from Concordia, Alma, Emma, Marshall, Malta Bend, Brunswick, Lone Elm and Jefferson City. Additional teams are organizing to sort and pack at Lockwood and Norborne. Large quantities of goods were brought to the Concordia sorting/packing center from Carthage, Carrollton, Malta Bend and Marshall in 2005.
Rasa Orchards at Lexington donated a semi load of 734 cases of apples to Orphan Grain Train in January and 800 cases in December for distribution at mission stations in Southwest U.S. This year, 2006, the Missouri West Division is geared to ship humanitarian goods to wherever needed worldwide. To achieve this, the division will welcome additional volunteers to sort and pack and will continue to look for bedding and new and good used clothing and shoes for all ages.
A transfer company in Sedalia has recently given Missouri West Division a 40-foot over-the-road trailer for use in temporarily storing goods. It is ready for shipping to where most needed by Orphan Grain Train. The trailer currently is filled with packaged winter goods. As soon as the Orphan Grain Train Transportation Department arranges for a shipping-container and a destination for the goods, the trailer will be unloaded of winter goods and become temporary storage for packaged summer goods.
Individuals interested in volunteering for humanitarian service with Orphan Grain Train are urged to contact Alfred Rodewald, division chairman.