In fall 2023, the Lord called to her eternal home the soul of 19-year-old Susannah Zahn after a lengthy illness that is known to have afflicted only 200 people around the world. Susannah was an avid reader. What could be done as a fitting memorial for her?

My wife, Ellen, and I had planned a Caribbean cruise for this past spring, which included stops at St. Lucia and Antigua. WELS has churches on both of those islands. Ellen contacted both churches to see if they could use some books donated in memory of Susannah. Our pastor in St. Lucia said he was outfitting a shipping container as a lending library for the community but had no books for the shelves. In Antigua, they had just repainted their school library and needed fresh books. Shipping costs and customs fees make it difficult to have things shipped without incurring great expense, so Ellen asked if we could bring books to them. Little did we realize how this project would grow!

Ellen contacted the cruise line and asked if we could bring additional luggage containing books to be donated at both places. We envisioned bringing about 300 books along. But when members of the local Lutheran Women’s Missionary Society circuit heard of our plans, they donated money for books, as did several other individuals and churches. Many people from our community also gave us used children’s books. By the time of our cruise, we had in excess of 1,000 books. The cruise line agreed to let us bring them as long as we could fit them into our stateroom and go through the customs processing on arrival at the ports.

God is good! The books were loaded on the ship with our luggage, and six large duffel bags filled with books fit in our stateroom. (I had envisioned having to sleep out in a deck chair because there would be no space for us in the room.) Local customs agents at St. Lucia and Antigua cleared us to offload the books, and the books were safely delivered to both churches. What a delight to see the kids unpack the duffel bags and scream in excitement at the new books for their library.

We pray that God will use these books to enrich the children’s lives both in St. Lucia and Antigua.

Author: FIC
Volume 111, Number 09
Issue: September 2024