ELCA Assembly Welcomes Tour de Revs at Final Stop

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Three pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) set out on a mission 100 days ago -- to end hunger and poverty in the world by raising $5 million for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.
"Our tour was not about records, but about revelation, revolution and revenue," said the Rev. Frederick "Fred" A. Soltow, one of the pastors.  "The revelation is that there are over 2,100 verses in Scripture where God says that there shall be no poor or hungry; feed my people and eliminate injustice."  
Soltow and his fellow riders -- the Rev. Reinold "Ron" Schlak and the Rev. David A. Twedt -- called their journey "The Tour de Revs."  They rode more than 10,000 miles and made 66 stops, including a stop in each of the 65 Synods of the ELCA.  Their journey ended Aug. 20 at the 2009 ELCA Chuchwide Assembly.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 17-23 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.  About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,045 ELCA voting members.
The trio does not have a final number on how much money they raised, but have been told that it could be more than $250,000.
"The funds are coming in faster than ELCA World Hunger can count it," he said with a smile.
Schlak told the assembly of a donation they had received from a homeless woman in San Diego who collected 551 pennies discarded in the streets to give to their cause.
"She had heard of our mission and wanted to help those who are also hungry," Schlak said.
Even though the trio wasn't didn't reach their fundraising goal, Twedt said the tour was a success.
"What we really wanted people to do was make a person change in their stewardship and make the ELCA World Hunger appeal part of their monthly stewardship appeal," he said.  "We have the resources to fight poverty and end hunger. The question is do we have the desire, because it is God's work."
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Information on the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.elca.org/assembly on the ELCA Web site.

Information on the Tour de Revs can be found at http://www.tourderevs.org on the Web.

* Carrie L. Draeger is a senior communication major with a concentration in journalism at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.
  
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