Lord of Love’s Endowment Fund is a natural extension of our commitment to Christian stewardship. Initiated in January, 1988, its purpose is to receive gifts and bequests and invest them to produce income. Annually, a portion of the fund is channeled into mission programs that reach beyond what our annual budget is able to accomplish. The investments are now being managed through the ELCA Endowment Fund Pooled Trust. An Endowment Committee of congregation members annually distributes three to five percent of the total fund assets (as of September 30) as grants.
To learn more about the fund, see our Endowment Fund Brochure.
Since 2011 Endowment Fund grants totaling over $45,000 have been awarded to various applying organizations. In 2021, grants were awarded to 10 of the 12 applying organizations. The grants ranged from $300 to $1000 each, totaling $6560. Organizations receiving grant funds include a Machame Nursing Scholarship in Tanzania through Bob Kasworm, National Alliance for Mental Illness, Magdalene Omaha (for sex trafficking), Table Grace Ministries, Heartland Kids Against Hunger, and Lutheran Family Services Refugee Program.
Donate To This Fund Any Time
Your donation also allows the fund to grow. As the principle grows, more and more people in need will benefit from the annual grant awards.
Please consider making a second mile gift to the Endowment Fund in memory of a loved one, in honor of a special person, in thanksgiving for a special event or occasion, or as part of your estate planning.
Gifts from this fund can be mailed directly to the church. You can also donate electronically through the Vanco Mobile smartphone application or via our online giving page.
Know of a worthy project that needs additional funding? Apply for a Grant!
Annually, Lord of Love accepts grant applications for local, regional, national, and international mission projects from September thru October 31.
Please refer to our Endowment Grant Request page for the application process and related details.
Lord of Love members are encouraged to reach out to various organizations to help them create an endowment grant request for an ongoing or special project.
Endowment Grants 2022
The Lord of Love Endowment Committee reviewed grant applications and chose to award grants to 5 organizations for a total of $5,200.
$1000 Lutheran Service Corps for operational costs, and for travel expenses for recruiting volunteers, as the local group has separated from the national Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
$1700 Machame Nursing School, for Julieth Nauri via the Nebraska Synod, Tanzania. This grant covers the cost of this nursing student at the Machame Hospital School of Nursing, who could not attend without support. All funds flow through the Nebraska Synod and the CHI Health Tanzania Partnership.
$ 500 Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministries for general operating costs for the Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministries program.
$1000 Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Seminary Scholarship Endowment Fund – The grant will go to the NLOM Seminary Scholarship Endowment Fund, which will be used for scholarships awarded to summer staff going to seminary.
$1000 Table Grace Ministries – This grant will be used for operating expenses: meals for those who cannot pay, job training programs, and music ministry. The grant helps make up for fewer daily donations.
Endowment Grants 2021
The Lord of Love Endowment Committee reviewed 12 applications for grants including several brought forward by Lord of Love members “”thank you! They chose to award grants to 10 organizations for a total of $6,560.
$500 Magdalene Omaha (a program that works with survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution)
$1,700 Machame Nursing Scholarship-Tanzania-through Kasworm & NE Synod
$500 National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Omaha Chapter
$500 Immanuel Lutheran Bellevue–for Meal Prep Program (food pantry)
$300 NE Campus Ministries
$560 Lutheran Service Corps
$500 Table Grace Ministries
$1,000 Heartland Kids Against Hunger
$500 Healing Gifts Free Clinic (for anti-anxiety and depression meds)
$500 Lutheran Family Services–Refugee Program
Endowment Grants – Making a Difference
Here are some ways that our past endowment fund grants have made a big difference.
Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministries
This program connects college students with churches in the Omaha area. Three solid ministry cell groups exist: God & Grads, a weekly ministry engaging twelve graduate students; NeMO, engaging 35 undergraduate students from various colleges in the area; T-GAP, a weekly ministry aimed at College of St. Mary students. These three ministries are currently engaging more students than at any time in NLCM 35-year history.
Followers of Christ Prison Ministry, Nebraska
Seed money from the Lord of Love Missions Possible team helped launch a program where inmates package meals for distribution to the hungry in rural Nebraska. This grant helped support expansion and continuation of this mission and ministry.
Scholarships at Machame Hospital, Tanzania
Supports scholarships for Nursing or Clinical Officer students. $750 supports one student for one semester.
Ramadhani Ally Karia is the nursing student Lord of Love sponsored for a semester and a half through the endowment fund. Rhamadhani beginning his first year in 2016. September 1, 2018 was Graduation Day in Machame. Rhamadhani was one of 45 nurses and 74 clinical officers who graduated.of the Nursing Certificate course. Rhamadhani will go on to touch thousands of patients and families during his career. Through our scholarship support we are touching thousands of lives in Africa as well.
Ramadhani’s letter of thanks tells more about him, his family, and his dream to become a nurse.
Computers for Machame Hospital, Tanzania
Purchased replacement computers for the hospital finance department. Each computer cost about about $600.
Poor Person Orthopedic Surgery Fund at Machame Hospital, Tanzania
In December 2015 the Endowment Fund gave a grant of $1,000 to the Machame Hospital, an orthopedic hospital in Tanzania. The grant provides help for patients with serious orthopedic problems and depleted resources. The grant enables the hospital to continue to serve other patients needs as well. Two stories about surgeries supported by the fund showed the impact of this fund on the well-being of the affected children. Annual grants have continued to support this fund.
The Impact of the Fund
Here is one example of how Lord of Love’s gifts make possible the important work being done at Machame Hospital.
Sindio Anthoni is 26 years old and lives deep in the bush in Tanzania in a village area called Loliondo. He broke his femur (thigh bone) in a fall and it was not healing. Sindio came to Machame Hospital to look for help.
At Machame Hospital they put him in traction for a period. Once things straightened out they surgically inserted a long metal nail (about one foot long by half an inch in diameter) in the center of the bones to connect and hold them properly in place. One need not be a physician to understand the before and after x-rays. Sindio is now able to stand and walk and even squat a bit.
Sindio was at Machame Hospital for about 4 months and his bill was 1.2 Million (luckily in Shilingi, $558 US dollars). His family and community were able to pay about $350. The poor person orthopedic fund supported by a grant from the Lord of Love Endowment Fund paid the remainder of the bill allowing Sindio to be discharged.
Meet Majidi Mshana
In the instance below, the grant helped for care and surgery of Majidi, a young needy patient.
Majidi became a patient at Machame Hospital in early December 2015. He does not seem to have a family. Fortunately, other patient’s families were sharing their food with him.
Majidi had fallen from a tree and suffered several arm fractures. He had a fracture of his wrist and an open fracture near the elbow with his bones sticking through skin. First they treated his wounds so they would heal sufficiently to allow surgery.
At the end of January 2016 doctors performed a closed reduction to align his bones at the fracture site. Next a plaster cast was put on his arm. Overall, this surgery and treatment encourages functionality and prevents deformity.
Additional examples of past endowment fund grants:
– Enabled two Tanzanian students to attend secondary school through partial payment of their tuition. The students were Reginald Stephano Mwanga and Marta Onesmno Mkumo.
– Partial tuition for seminary school.
– Covered the cost of books and other college expenses allowing the recipient to work as a counselor at Camp Carol Joy Holling.
– Provided scholarships for low income children attending the Day Camp Program provided by Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries.
– Various forms of assistance to people in Tanzania as identified by Lord of Love members traveling to Tanzania.