Elder Ballard’s Miraculous Trip to Ethiopia & the Beginning of LDS Charities

This article was originally written by Jamie Armstrong for LDS Living. The following is a excerpt. 

In 1985, a special fast for the famine victims of Ethiopia sparked a flood of donations that far exceeded the Church’s expectations. This act of generosity by Latter-day Saints marked the beginning of what would become LDS Charities—the Church’s humanitarian organization—which has been spreading hope and healing throughout the world ever since.

The images were heartbreaking: Crying children with skeletal frames, bloated stomachs, and dark, sunken eyes. Starving men and women in such despair that they didn’t have the energy to swat the flies from their faces. In 1984, news of the devastating famine in Ethiopia dominated the world’s media and weighed on the minds of people everywhere.

Church headquarters received a consistent stream of letters from concerned members asking what the Church planned to do to help ease such incomprehensible suffering. Because of several media stories reporting on less-than-trustworthy humanitarian organizations, Latter-day Saints were asking to send donations to the Church so the Brethren could ensure the money was used wisely. As a result, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve requested that Latter-day Saints in the United States and Canada participate in a special fast on January 27, 1985. All donations from that day would then be dedicated toward assisting famine victims.

The response was overwhelming. In fact, Church members donated an astonishing $6.4 million on that single day.

A Mission of Mercy

Elder Glenn L. Pace, who was serving as the managing director of the Church’s Welfare Department at the time of the fast, was given the daunting task of determining the best way to use the consecrated funds.

“At that time, the Church did not have the infrastructure or license to deliver aid directly to the people,” he explains. “Therefore, we were dependent on using other organizations.”

After painstaking research, Elder Pace identified trustworthy partners such as Catholic Relief Services, the American Red Cross, and Africare. But before the funds were released, Elder Pace, along with Elder M. Russell Ballard, then of the Presidency of the Seventy, was assigned to go to Ethiopia to determine firsthand how the donations should be allocated.

Read the full article at LDSliving.com.