"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18
What is Orphan Grain Train?
Orphan Grain Train is a Christian volunteer network that shares personal and material resources with needy people in America and around the world. Grain Train volunteers gather donations of clothing, medical supplies, food, Christian literature, and other aid to meet real needs. The Orphan Grain Train movement is a loving response to Jesus Christ's example as a servant and His love for us.
Mission Statement
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.
How Can I Help?
Pray for this ministry become a sponsering congregation be a representative that puts items in your church newsletter volunteer for the OGT board collect needed items have your LWML take on a project have Sunday School collect school kit items make quilts join in a mass packing event volunteer to help load container pick-up donated items and transport to St. Paul save printer cartridges and donate be a source connection for medical supplies talk with your employer about donations consider an individual monetary contribution
WHAT DOES OGT COLLECT?
medical supplies (syringes, hospital beds, gurneys...) used/new clothing - men, women, children, baby clothes shoes, boots, outerwear bedding, curtains, towels fabric, notions (thread, buttons, zippers...) children's toys (no batteries), sports equipment meals ("Kids Against Hunger" meals) specialty items (request for musical instruments once) school supplies, backpacks new underwear
To find out about projects, needed items, and volunteer opportunities for Maryland: www.orgt.org Click "Regional Divisions" Scroll down and click Maryland
Contact person: Elfie Eberle c/o St. Paul Lutheran Church 31 Rowe Blvd. Annapolis, MD 21401 [email protected]
At this time we are collecting shoes to be shipped over to Haiti at St. Thomas
UPDATES
ALABAMA RELIEF: Our 24 foot truck arrived in Birmingham at the OGT warehouse on July 14th with wood and ceramic flooring, hygiene supplies, cleaning supplies, socks and underwear, and paper goods. Thank you so much for helping us get this relief to our brothers and sisters in Alabama. They are so very grateful for these gifts.
THRIVENT CHOICE DOLLARS: Thank you as well for choosing OGT Maryland Branch for your choice dollars. The average cost of a container is between $7 and $13,000these dollars help us do more to help others.
HAITI: Because a new President was inaugurated in Haiti and new restrictions were imposed on humanitarian aid, OGT's containers have been sitting in Port Au Prince at the dock for a number of weeks. We are told that the log jam is loosening and we are hoping to ship early September. We have just acquired 16 chalk boards with chalk for dozens of schools we support. There is still time to bring school supplies, summer clothes, summer shoes, pillowcases, dresses and Mercy kits. Haiti has again been designated by our State Department as a place so dangerous that Americans are warned about travel there. Pray for the Haitian people.
CAMEROON: (Update from Eric Gates, Lutheran Hour Ministry Director for Africa and the Middle East.) "I visited our ministry center in Cameroon in May and reviewed the progress on our Women's Outreach program there. The OGT container is well into process of being retrofitted into a women's sewing center. Doors, windows, interior lighting and a tin roof have been installed, transforming the drab shipping container into an attractive space." "I visited with leaders of the PROTESTANT HOSPITAL in Ngaoundere, a region with large Muslim population. The leaders expresses their great appreciation for the donations of hospital beds,. I saw rooms with 6 beds and often 15 people in the room. I was impresses to see a sign, in Arabic, at many entrances to the hospital saying, "Issa e Wallad Allah" "(Jesus is the Son of God). The OGT container also helped us reach 4,000 prisoners in Yaounde Central Prison who received much-needed clothing. Prisons in Africa do not provide uniforms, prisoners rely on family to provide them in clothing, soap and other basic material needs. it was an opportunity for us to share Christ's love as we ministered to the needy within our midst."
GRANARY: Storhouse fot the Lord- warehouse building project. We now have our plans from our architect and engineer and are initiating the 1 year permit process. A gracious lady whose profession it is to shepherd permits through the labyrinth of the Anne Arundel County permit process, has offers her services pro bono. We would like to come to your church and tell you about our plans and what OGT does in and out of the SED. Please contact Elfie via e-mail or phone 410-544-1621 if in your fall budgeting you should have room for a line of $25.00 a month (FOR 2 YEARS) for OGT in the SED, we would be deeply grateful. We are hoping that 100 churches will consent so that we have $2500 a month in order to build and ship. What a far reaching blessing to the people of Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, and Haiti and our future recipient in Ghana.