Two TV Shows And One 'Crop For Christ'

Baltimore, October 16, 2003 — Lutheran World Relief has 'supporting' roles in two national television programs this weekend and one personal appearance to match.

A rural Lutheran parish in Forrest, Illinois, that grows crops to help hungry people overseas is featured in the TV program "U.S. Farm Report." Proceeds from Grace Lutheran's local harvest will be used by LWR to purchase grain, seeds and tools abroad. The project is sponsored by the Foods Resource Bank, which links farmers, parishes and aid agencies like LWR.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for those who benefit from such projects is in Iowa this weekend. Mary Pelezi of Dodoma, Tanzania, is taking part in a harvest celebration by seven Lutheran parishes near Lake Mills. The parishes call their project 'One Crop for Christ' and expect their harvest to generate nearly $10,000 - with a USAID matching grant - for LWR to use in places like Tanzania.

"We have provided seeds to three villages with help from LWR," Mary Pelezi reports. "But we have still much work to do. This year is really a starving year in my area." Crops in central Tanzania were good last year, Pelezi said, but very bad otherwise every year since 1998 because of drought. [For more on the LWR project where Pelezi works, see http://www.standwithafrica.org/hunger/tanzania.php].

"U.S. Farm Report" airs on nearly 200 stations each weekend. [For information in your area, visit www.tribtv.com/usf.html].

Lutheran World Relief provided video footage from Africa for a portion of this week's PBS program "To The Contrary." The program explores the potential of microbicides as an alternative to an eventual HIV/AIDS vaccine. The LWR footage is from an innovative AIDS prevention project in Senegal. [For show times and stations, visit http://www.pbs.org/ttc].