Pastor Zorn

LIGHT TO THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS
“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78

As we return from our flood relief mission trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I look at the calendar, I am struck that the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany season will soon be upon us. In the spirit of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, and his prophecy that we call The Benedictus (Latin: the blessing or praise), I am reflecting on the light that shone in the darkness two thousand years ago and continues to do the same even today.
These are the facts: The Cedar River is 300 miles long. As a result of severe rains in the Cedar River watershed last spring, the river flooded its banks from June 8-21, 2008. At its crest, the Cedar River was 27 feet above normal, flooding more than five thousand homes and one thousand businesses along the river. The Midwest flooding made headline news for about a week in June and was forgotten thereafter. Several phone calls to churches and disaster relief agencies in the area led me to conclude that it was right for us to head west rather than south for our November relief trip this year. One of the houses flooded in Cedar Rapids was located three blocks from the river. It belonged to a man named Jose who was born in El Salvador and has lived in Cedar Rapids for eighteen years. By the tender mercy of our God our relief team was led to that house for a week of work.
Jose works as a manager for a hotel in Cedar Rapids and his wife has an administrative position at a college. They have three children. They own six rental homes. Five of them were flooded! Jose had purchased the home that we worked in for $35,000 and added $50,000 of improvements to it. It was a very nice little house. Before he could rent it for the first time it was flooded. Given the economics of the situation, Jose could have turned the keys over to the bank but he told us that he didn’t want to do that. He had a real fighting spirit which we really appreciated. It is very rewarding to help somebody like Jose! Unfortunately, in the current economic environment, Jose is finding it very difficult to negotiate with his lender. He faces an uphill battle, but somehow I suspect that he is up to the challenge.
The group of volunteers that worked before us put new subfloor in the house. Our task was to replace insulation and sheetrock as high as four feet up on the first floor of the house. I suspect that the next volunteer crew will tape and mud and the crew after that will paint. With each volunteer work crew Jose is one step closer to recovering one of his properties….and light is given to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death!
I found the situation in Cedar Rapids to be much like what I experience in New Orleans, except on a much smaller scale. Blocks of homes were unoccupied and boarded up. Piles of mucked debris lay in front of many homes. We even saw one house that had just caved in on its foundation hours before we stumbled upon it! The downtown area is vacant and most businesses evidence no sign of recovery. Certainly the current economic situation exacerbates any recovery efforts. The picture is bleak and sad. As you drive around these areas devastated by flooding your gut is wrenched and your heart aches for people who have suffered great loss. If there is any hope it is that the churches are the ones who are providing relief and light to those affected! That is the same reality that we have heard from people in the Gulf.
I have found that these relief trips are spiritually deep and very rewarding on many levels. On this particular trip, given the current economic situation, I came back home with a few reflections; the “loss” in my pension account doesn’t seem quite so large! I am not getting a salary increase in 2009, but I am very thankful to be employed in my vocation. We are very lucky to live in an area of the country that is relatively unaffected by natural disasters. The spirit of Christians working together and motivated by Jesus to shine light into darkness is a beautiful thing! The challenges caused by natural disasters are monumental but each of us can make a small difference by extending the mercy of God to those in need! I didn’t spend any money in Cedar Rapids, but I did “buy” my first Christmas present this year; a week of my time and a small wooden cross gifted to an appreciative stranger named Jose. “Just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family…” (Matthew 25:40)
So what hope do I have after a week of volunteer work in Cedar Rapids? Maybe some day I’ll return to that city and see a family renting Jose’s house and like Zechariah, my heavy heart will sing The Benedictus!
Peace, Pastor

Jack Newfield
I have a new appreciation for the concept in scripture that “chaos” is represented by “the waters” and the need for the “mighty wind” of the Spirit passing over the waters to bring order. The devastation of floods is so total and the area affected so widespread and uniform as to leave no spot where a community’s life must not be rebuilt.
I definitely saw the “Spirit” in the welcome and support of the local Presbyterian Church community. I am sure that we and other relief groups were constant factors requiring “work arounds” in their lives but there was nothing but joy in the atmosphere. One evening a lady saw my attempts to balance a soup bowl and a plate and she jumped up and came over and helped carry my food to the table. As her story developed, she had lost everything in her basement to the flood but no one would have known that she faced this kind of loss from meeting and talking with her.
Another inspiration from the week was that of the various disaster relief groups that cycled through the Church while we were there. You know that it cannot be easy for an 80 year woman to “camp out” in a church and spend the day mucking out a house but never was there a word of complaint from any of the workers.
My impression of the city was that there was this was a community of the poor and lower paid workers. The fact that major factories were located in the heart of the downtown area certainly had something to do with this impression, that and the size and conditions of houses that had nothing to do with the flood. This was definitely a pocked of need.
As usual it was a blessing working with the LCR community and the “can do” attitude of the group. Sharing time in the evenings both discussed sources of hope and effected hope.
Thanks for making a space for me.

NOVEMBER 11, MARK WEGMEYER

This morning dawned cold and wet. About 35 degrees with rain, but that beats snow! Our group was singled out from the other two as "more skilled," (no idea what gave them that impression!) which is why we ended up at Jose's house. We are quite happy with this assignment, as it allows us to be inside, in a weather tight structure.
Today we continued with the shimming and the drywall. The process is slow as every stud seems to need a slightly different shim setup, but we press on! In the end though, the house will again be a home for someone, and that's a good feeling.
The high point of the day probably came at lunch time as we ventured to the near by "locals" joint. With an airplane on the roof, an aviation motif, and a menu that specialized in large hot dogs, it was quite fitting of it's name, "The Flying Weiner!" (I may need to buy the T-shirt!).
Dinner is almost ready, and although it won't be quite as good as the wonderful spread put out last night by our hosts, we are very thankful for the dinners prepared by wives and LCR members, and look forward to sharing our evening meal with our Detroit friends.
Please keep us in your prayers as you are in ours, as we continue in the Lord's service.

Mark

November 10 - Jason Leupen

Everyone arrived safely at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids last night. John and I (Jason) arrived around 8pm Eastern Time and the other 3 (Pastor, Mark, and Jack) arrived around 11pm ET. We were greeted by Loren (the volunteer coordinator) and shown to our room. The five of us are staying in the Bell Choir room, sleeping on air mattresses on the floor. There are 2 other groups here - one from Chicago and one from Detroit.

The church is very nice inside and the people are very welcoming. Our "bedroom" is adjacent to the fellowship hall and kitchen. The neighborhood that the church is located in is one of the rougher parts of Cedar Rapids, so we will probably stay inside. Of course, it was 22 degrees (14 windchill) when we got up this morning, so we don't want to spend much time outside anyway.

This morning we left for our first assignment. Loren led us to a 2 story house just a couple blocks west of the river. The whole community was flooded. This 2 story house was owned by Jose. He is an immigrant from El Salvador who has been in the U.S. for 21 years. He and his wife had purchased 7 homes over that time period and had been renting them out before the flood. 5 of the homes were severely damaged by the flood! Unfortunately, the government here does not recognize Landlords as either homeowners or businesses so Jose and his wife are not getting any help from the government.

During the flood, the water had risen to about 3 feet above the floor of the main level (this is probably 8-10 feet above street level!) Several months ago, the house was mucked and all of the plaster and lathe was removed to that level. Our work assignment is to install insulation and drywall this area. Today we installed the insulation and began preparing to install the drywall. Since the existing walls were made of plaster and lathe, we have to shim the studs out so that the drywall will line up with the plaster. Tomorrow, we should be able to complete the shimming and can begin installing the sheetrock.

-Jason Leupen

p.s. Did I mention it was cold here??

LCR will be on a mission trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa from November 9-15, 2008.