TEXAS MESSENGER - The Texas District of the Lutheran Church ...

Lutheran
Social Services
An Easter message from Dr. Kurt Senske
LSS Chief Executive Officer
It seems like just a couple months ago that I was writing the 2011 Easter
message for the Texas Messenger on the topic of “new beginnings” so closely associated
with spring renewal and the Easter season. Once again, new beginnings
are abundant at Lutheran Social Services. One such new beginning is the Nelson
Children’s Ministries (NCM) that unites LSS children’s services in the Dallas/Fort
Worth Metroplex. In addition to the 250-plus children we serve in foster care, we
are securing the land on which to build a new children’s residential treatment
center, a program that is much needed as one does not currently exist in this
highly populated area.
This Easter season, we ask for your blessings and prayers for the Nelson
Children’s Ministries and the successful process and completion of this very
important LSS children’s treatment facility.
I wish you all a blessed Easter celebration, surrounded by those you love.
To God be the glory!
Brenham, Blue Bell and Kruse Village
We’re not trying to keep it a secret, but not everyone knows about the
idyllic retirement community LSS operates in Brenham. Kruse Memorial
Lutheran Village is a full-spectrum retirement campus, offering all levels
of care in one beautifully maintained, professionally managed community.
The Kruse Village property is surrounded by a gorgeous landscape,
with cows and wildflowers adding to the serene picture. In addition to
Independent Living in the Village Cottages and Apartments, there are
Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing and Memory Care units, allowing
residents to age in place.
A full-service rehabilitation facility accommodates anyone who needs
physical, occupational or speech therapy—from joint replacements and
workers compensation injuries to weekend warriors who have simply
overdone it. Think about visiting and taking a tour if you or someone in
your life is ready to simplify and adopt the gracious Kruse Village lifestyle.
Kruse Village, 1700 E. Stone St., Brenham, TX 77833; 979-830-1996.
LCMS WR-HC grant helps our friends in need on the South Plains
LCMS World Relief and Human Care awarded a grant of $4,500 to Health for Friends Clinic in Lubbock for
the Diabetes Education Project, which provides indigent and uninsured men and women the education and
supplies needed to prevent or self-manage diabetes through monitoring, testing and lifestyle changes. Health
for Friends is a nurse-managed clinic that offers free health screening, one-on-one support and health education
to low-income adults at risk for chronic health issues such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and
morbid obesity. Last year alone, 1,606 individual patients were served during 7,280 patient visits.
Health for Friends Clinic and Neighborhood House in Lubbock are two amazing, under-the-radar LSS ministries
for those in financial crisis and/or without access to health care. Neighborhood House delivers food,
prescriptions, utility assistance and other necessities to individuals and households in crisis. Its client population
is made up of single mothers, the elderly and disabled (on fixed incomes at poverty level or below), the
homeless and marginally homeless and persons who are in a temporary financial crisis. In 2011 alone, 13,968
individuals were provided emergency assistance and 62 tons of food and hygiene products were distributed.
P TEXAS district