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Lutheran Disaster Response workers from all three "flood states" are
meeting today (Tuesday) and tomorrow to share what is happening at each LDR
site and to plan relief efforts for the coming months. Some forty nine
disaster response workers ( many of them provided by state funds that
are helping Lutherans employ people out of work because of the flood) wept
and laughed as they shared stories, frustrations and hope.
The workers told of people who put new wallboard in their homes this summer
and who must now tear it out and begin again because water has seeped
through. They told of roads near Watertown, South Dakota, that still
disappear under water more four months after the flood, and of finished
basements still being flooded from the high water table. They told of the
massive rebuilding now starting, and of the desperate, urgent need of
volunteers now and through the winter months. What were they proud of in
each of their areas ? They were proud of the volunteers, who were the
living witnesses to flood survivors that they weren't forgotten or
abandoned. They were proud of such early efforts as the pumps and
generators that helped save homes during those first days. They were proud
of "Camp Noah", a camp held at many disaster sites and in many communities
this summer, helping children cope with their loss.
What are the needs ? Volunteers are the big need, because without them
there is little help for so many struggling to repair their homes.
Building materials is another need, especially for the elderly and others
who cannot afford the material they need to rebuild their home. Trucks and
fork lifts are major needs, to handle the building materials and make sure
they get to peoples' homes. They challenged all of us throughout the church
to pull together and meet these needs, now and through the fearful Fall and
Winter months to come.
Some of the workers talked about Christmas. Yes, only four months! What
kind of Thanksgiving and Christmas will it be for those living in onloy
partly-repaired homes ? For children whose families do not even have the
funds to repair their homes ? Plans are underway for a "Christmas project"
that will reach across the church and invite Lutherans to reach out to make
the hope of Christ's coming alive and real this Christmas in the flood
areas of South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.
Keep them all in your prayers: these forty nine staff members of Lutheran
Disaster Response, reaching out on your behalf here in the Upper Midwest,
sometimes tired,sometimes frustrated, but renewed and upheld by God's
grace and your prayers as they go about their work; and, above all, the
people they are serving, struggling to get the furnace working and the
outside fixed up before the cold weather here in the North, before October,
and facing with faith and courage the task still ahead.
To contribute: ELCA Domestic Disaster Response
PO Box 71764/ Chicago, IL 60694-1764
To volunteer: 800- 987- 0061 (Minnesota and North Dakota)
800- 568- 2401 (South Dakota, Rose Kormann)
LEON PHILLIPS 8:59 pm Tue, Aug 26, 1997
Director, ELCA Domestic Disaster Response (Division for Church in Society),
Lutheran Disaster Response (a cooperative ministry of ELCA and LCMS)
Phone: 610-776-8390 FAX: 610-776-8392 e-mail:[log in to unmask]
WEBSITE http://www.elca.org/dcs/disaster
