Mid-Atlantic Regional Division
Orphan Grain Train's Mission
In loving response to Christ, the Servant, the Orphan Grain Train movement encourages and enables God's people to share personal and material resources in bringing Christ's name and character to needy people both far and near. Sometimes that character expresses itself as a word well spoken, sometimes as a bandage well applied, and sometimes as a child well fed.
What Is Orphan Grain Train?
We help Christians share personal and material resources with needy people in America and around the world. It's a Christian, North American, volunteer network that gathers donations of clothing, medical supplies, food, Christian literature, and other items in response to the real needs of people around the world. The Orphan Grain Train movement is a loving response to Jesus Christ's example as a servant and His love for us. The ministry was founded by Rev. Ray S. Wilke and Mr. Clayton Andrews with the support of several other members of Grace Lutheran Church in Norfolk, Nebraska, after Rev. Wilke visited Riga, Latvia, in 1992, and saw the need for spiritual, emotional, and humanitarian aid in countries of the former Soviet Union. Since 1992, Orphan Grain Train has sent over 20,000,000 pounds of supplies to needy people in Eastern Europe and elsewhere in the world and America-- over 1,000 semitrailer truckloads as of August 2005.
How Does it Work?
Volunteers use their own cars, trucks, and vans and personal financial support in 18 regional divisions across the United States to "climb aboard" the Orphan Grain Train. They donate and ship clothing, food, and materials to people in destitute situations around the world. Donated materials are shipped from regional division warehouses to Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Mexico, Central and South America as well as to disasters and the destitute in America. Orphan Grain Train managers and volunteers in partner organizations distribute the goods to people in need through churches, hospitals, orphanages, old people's homes, schools, and soup kitchens. Orphan Grain Train works in partnership with the International Lutheran Laymen's League ("Lutheran Hour Ministries") and Lutheran Church Missouri Synod World Mission to supply missionaries with items they are not able to purchase after disasters occur, or after governmental collapse. This enables missionaries to be the "hands and feet of Jesus" when and where mercy is most needed.
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