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To: [log in to unmask] Dear Christian friends, I spent the first day of spring doing just what I did the first day of spring last year -- looking at 245 miles of fence posts. As I drove from two days of meetings with the Lutheran Disaster Response of North Dakota staff in Fargo to a similar meeting of the LDR staff in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, my visual key to the difference between this spring day and the previous one was the fence posts along Interstate 29. As I left Fargo, it was a fine spring day. The contrast between this day and last year was dramatic. Across the fence posts I saw a thin snow cover atop the fields, and in most places the rich black Dakota soil was exposed to the sun. I saw cattle out in the fields, pushing their noses into muddy ground for buildings. Farm buildings had no collapsed roofs or 14-foot snowdrifts against them. As I approached the Sioux Falls area, local radio spots talked about early spring planting and early applications of week killer in cornfields. The temperature was near 40 degrees, and the sky clear and blue. But this fine spring day was deceptive. The disaster caused by last year's blizzards is not done yet in western North and South Dakota. People still live in houses with crumbling foundations, broken windows, collapsed roofs, and sagging ceilings. Many are still paying off last year's bills. Respiratory infections caused by mold and mildew adversely affect the elderly and children. Family tensions are high, and suicide and domestic violence are on the rise. Ranchers who never shed a tear now weep "at the drop of a hat," said Karen Griffith, an LDR staff person. Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota is managing the LDR ministries to the western South Dakota hinterlands. To date, LDR and it's Lutheran partners (including AAL, LB, and Orphan Grain Train) have rebuilt 80 flood-damaged homes from Watertown to Webster (using 3,800 volunteer hours); provided more than 2,100 hours of free counseling and mental health services; distributed nearly $300,000 to 350 households to cover outstanding fuel, feed, and snow removal bills, repair fencing and buildings, and buy groceries; donated over twenty semi-trailer loads of meat, groceries, clothing, and building supplies to more than 50 South Dakota communities. An elderly couple that had been splitting and sharing their heart medication can now fill both prescriptions. People who haven't even eaten breakfast cereal for three or more years are now doing so. A 74-year-old woman who "hadn't had meat in so long that she couldn't remember what it looked like" can now buy some. By these efforts, in the name of the church, real people still living in difficult storm-related circumstances are touched by God's hand. The scene is different, but the needs continue. In these first days of spring, as our brothers and sisters continue to struggle from last year's blizzards and storms, let us pray they will feel God's supportive love...and know God's presence by our faith active in responsive love. To contribute: ELCA Domestic Disaster Response PO Box 71764, Chicago, IL 60694-1764 To volunteer: 1-800-987-0061 (Minnesota and North Dakota) 1-800-568-2401 (South Dakota) In Christ, Gil Furst GILBERT B. FURST (written on Sun, Mar 22, 1998, at 3:49 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