Orphan Grain Train 

Suzie Leffers to us about the Orphan Grain Train which was started in 1992 in Norfolk, NE.  This company is a very well kept secret in Norfolk and actually has 29 regional locations.  There is a collection warehouse located in Lincoln, NE at 4817 N. 56th Street.  

The Beginning

In 1992, Rev. Ray S. Wilke, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Norfolk, Neb., volunteered with a group of Lutherans who traveled to Latvia and Russia to help with a church mission. There they met people with “no hope” in desperate need of spiritual, emotional, and humanitarian aid after the breakup of the former Soviet Union. The Latvians begged Rev. Wilke to help them more after he went home and he promised he would. Wilke envisioned a train that would travel through America’s midwest, picking up cars of donated grain along the way, until it reached a port from which the grain would be shipped to feed starving orphans in Eastern Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Wilke contacted Clayton Andrews, president of Andrews Van Lines, a worldwide transportation company, and told his story. Together, they founded Orphan Grain Train. “He came to me and asked, ‘Do you think something can be done?'” says Andrews. “I said, ‘Yes, I know how we can help those people.’ I never hesitated and it took off from there.” As it turned out, railroad operating protocol made the original grain train concept impractical, but Orphan Grain Train was born nonetheless. Within a year Grain Train’s first shipment, a container of clothing and quilts, arrived in Riga, Latvia.

What is Orphan Grain Train?
Orphan Grain Train is a 501c3 Nonprofit 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.
In late 1991 the Rev. Dr. Wallace Schulz, former Associate Speaker of The Lutheran Hour radio broadcast, and his family were sent to Riga, Latvia, to start broadcasting The Lutheran Hour in former communist countries in Eastern Europe. Early the next year, my wife and I had the opportunity to participate in Lutheran Hour Ministries’ volunteer program in Riga.
 
While there in Riga the idea of how to provide spiritual help and humanitarian aid to hungry souls and bodies resulted in the formation of the Orphan Grain Train. Since then, with God’s blessing and a generous outpouring of time, talent and contributions, Orphan Grain Train has become a hands-on mission project – a national network with regional divisions across the country organized to get necessary help to the endless requests for food, clothing, medical supplies, and Christian-centered literature to Riga, Latvia, and other areas where calamities occur.
 
More than 3,728 semi-trailer truckloads of food, clothing, medical supplies, and religious materials have been sent to 69 countries and several disaster areas in the U.S. since 1992. All of this is done by volunteers and individual contributors – people who are thankful for their blessings and want to provide a blessing to someone they will probably never see this side of heaven.
 
Volunteers sort and pack the donated items in our warehouses across the US. Contributors donate money to ship the precious cargoes of hope where most needed. (Eleven dollars sponsors the shipment of one box of aid!) Volunteers at the other end of the journey place these gifts of love into the hands of needy people. We believe that through Christ there is great hope embodied in the efforts of Orphan Grain Train. Read what is going on! Pray for it! Join us!
 

Present Day

Since 1992, Orphan Grain Train’s 29 regional locations have delivered more than 36 million meals and 3,728 shipments of humanitarian aid to needy people in several states and 69 countries on 5 continents. Orphan Grain Train built a mobile chapel with help from a grant funded by LCMS Disaster Relief division for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Pilger, NE after their church was demolished by a F4 tornado. In October 2017 hurricane Michael ravaged the shoreline of Texas and a majority of Houston. Michael left behind homes and businesses in ruins and lives lost. Orphan Grain Train purchased and delivered 15 shipments of building construction materials and 5 semi-loads of groceries to help stock shelves in a food pantry feeding volunteers and those that have lost everything. In October 2018 OGT had 400 turkeys delivered for Thanksgiving meals to those still living in desperation a year later. The mission of Orphan Grain Train is uniquely dependent upon dedicated volunteers, many of whom have given numerous years of service for the sake of others. Since 1992, more than 3.9 million hours have been volunteered!

Susie told us that this past year they had to get very inventive because of the Pandemic and the fact they could not ship anything nationally nor internationally.  So they decided to go locally.  and offered free sack lunches which they gave out 16,412 which went to anyone 19 or older and this was a drive thru type pickup.  They handed out kits that had hand sanitizer and wipes which went to day cares, hospitals, schools and businesses.  They also offered to purchase quilting material so people could sew and make masks and these went out to whomever needed a mask.  With the disaster in Texas they delivered 6,000 gallon water tanks, given bottled water in San Antonio.  In Spring, TX they delivered water, hams and various food items.  

They have done work in Philippines, Haiti and Europe.  These shipments include quilts, blankets and clothes, along with mercy meals, Bibles, coats, school supplies.  Many of these people the mercy meal is the only meal they might get that day.  They have offered disaster response or aid to 37 states, assisted local organizations, such as food panties, homeless missions, domestic shelters, soup kitchens, mission churches and Christian camps, as well as sent Humanitarian aid to 69 countries.

Here is a list of items that can be taken to the Lincoln warehouse if you would like to help, as well as, their hours of operation:

Infants’ supplies
• Cloth and Disposable Diapers
• Layettes
• Stuffed toys

 Medical Equipment and Supplies
• Bed and bath linens
• Sheets
• Disposable gowns and gloves
• Hospital beds (hand-crank with vinyl mattresses)
• Prosthetic limbs
• Walkers, wheel chairs, crutches and canes
• Stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, & otoscopes
• Call our office for additional needs and requirements.


 Hygiene Supplies (kit instructions on website)
• Sanitary products for women
• Toothbrushes
• Diapers for adults and babies
• Towels and washcloths
• Bar soap
• Combs

School Supplies (kit instructions on website)
• Back-packs (student sizes)
• New coloring books, crayons etc.
• New ballpoint pens and pencils
• Writing paper and notebooks
• Sports equipment such as soccer balls, bats, baseballs, ball gloves and uniforms

Clothing (gently used or new)
• Infant, children’s, women’s and men’s clothes
• Shoes clean and wearable
• New underwear (only)—all ages and sizes
(Customs officials will levy fines if used underwear is sent in our shipments.)
• Socks (good used or new)

PLEASE BRING CLOTHING TO THE
WAREHOUSE IN PLASTIC BAGS.

Quilts, comforters, blankets, towels, washcloths
• All sizes are needed
• We ship quilts, blankets & comforters year-round

Miscellaneous Items
• Bicycles
• Sports Equipment (soccer balls, basketballs, base-ball equipment, shoes, goals, etc.)

Lincoln Collection Center 4817 N. 56th Street
Suite #10
Lincoln, NE 68504 Hours of Operations: First & Third Tuesday – 1:00 to 3:30 PM Third Wednesday – 9:00 to 11:30 AM Second Thursday – 9:00 to 11:30 AM Fourth Thursday – 9:00 to 11:30 AM and 1:00 to 3:30 PM First, Third and Last Saturday – 9:00 to 11:30 AM For more information: Steve Sirek
Cell: 402-416-1972
sbsirek@gmail.com

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18