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To: [log in to unmask] Dear friends in Jesus Christ, "Let God do God's work through God's people" was the advice Bishop Rick Foss gave to pastors, lay leaders, spouses, church workers, volunteers, and the displaced throughout our travels yesterday, April 25. We spent nearly thirteen hours doing pastoral visitations between Fargo north to the Grand Forks area, where the Red River still stands at 53 feet above flood levels and eight-foot high snow drifts still hug tree-lined fields. Our first stop was at Ascension Lutheran Church, which now serves the area west of Grand Forks as a clinic for free tetanus shots, food distribution, and the base of operation for Valley Memorial Homes. Pastor Steve Engelston and his wife Gail were on hand to minister to the lines of people coming into and out of Ascension Church...providing care to others, even though their recently purchased house now stands in water. Wayne Stark, CEO of Valley Memorial Homes, described the evacuation of the 400 elderly patients in his three care facilities that week. He and his staff, exhausted by the massive effort to move so many frail people, gathered in the church nave. Pastor Ray Siegle, of Sharon Lutheran Church, Grand Forks, told how many people have said, "I'm praying for you"--a comforting thought when most prayers just now seem to be prayed on the run. "God working through God's people." We took a side trip to the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where a local bakery had made available 800 loaves of bread. We quickly loaded 400 loaves into Pastor Siegle's car to take back to Ascension Church, and Bishop Foss loaded the other 400 into his car to take along as we drove to the Park River Lutheran Bible Camp. Roger Quanbeck and Pastor Cory Bjertness, camp leaders at Park River, told how this Lutheran camp has changed its focus, and now provides temporary housing for evacuees of Grand Forks and distributes food, clothing, toys, and hope. Pastor Sandy Larson led devotions in the camp chapel, and Mennonite volunteers sang a number of hymns. Afterward, sixteen pastors and spouses of the Grafton Conference pulled chairs into a circle, and visited with Bishop Foss and me. We heard "condition reports" of towns upriver: "The dikes in Drayton are still holding firm, but they must hold for another week to ten days." "The river is still rising in Pembina." "In Neche the dike broke north towards Canada, and relieved pressure on the town." One pastor, serving congregations on both sides of the river, told how his usual fifteen minute travel between the two now takes over five hours, since the closest bridge across the Red River is all the way back in Fargo. Another shared how the homes of her parents and her sister were flooded. In this circle, Bishop Foss expressed concern for these tired leaders. Words of support and encouragement were expressed within the circle. Anxious thoughts were spoken of members not presently able to be in their houses, business owners unable to open stores, congregations unable to hold worship in flooded church buildings, empty neighborhoods, farmers in crisis. Mutual comfort--mutual consolation. "God working through God's people." It was my privilege this awesome day to bring a word of hope to these exhausted, stressed, weary brothers and sisters. I could share how your prayers continue to be offered, how your generosity will help the people in the upper midwest, how you are already preparing to volunteer when the cleanup efforts begin in the next weeks, how creative efforts in the Lutheran Social Service agencies are resulting in meeting immediate and long-term needs, and how the whole church can and will provide immediate and on-going financial and human resources. "Let God do God's work through God's people." May God work through you, as your prayers and your generosity reaches out in the name of Jesus Christ to all those affected by the terrible winter weather and spring storms in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Let God do God's work, through you. In Christ, Gil Furst GILBERT B. FURST (written on Sat, Apr 26, 1997, at 11:58 pm) Associate Director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response Internet address: [log in to unmask] For more information, click on our web site: www.elca.org/dcs/disaster