Update - Flood Recovery

Slowly our Guests at the mission are finding their way to us in our temporary home at Hope Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids, and we are registering new Guests thrust into poverty by the flood. Each week, over the past two months, we have begun to see an increase in Guests needing help. The numbers are increasing faster than they did at our start up as a mission. The members of Hope Lutheran have been gracious hosts with a huge heart for Christian hospitality giving us temporary space to work from while we look for a new home for the mission.
We have looked at several buildings, and even placed an offer on one but, we have not found the right one to purchase or rent yet. We are still looking, and last Sunday began advertising our need for a commercial building in the local newspaper (trust me, we are not being too picky). It is our fervent prayer that we can locate a new home before winter arrives, and we can be running at full capacity. The Farmers Almanac, which has an accuracy rate of 80-85% on it's weather forecasts is predicting an early and extremely harsh winter. Our need is great to be prepared to provide those in poverty and those displaced by the epic flood of 2008 in Linn County with support services that the governmental agencies cannot provide.
The U. S. Congress went on vacation, our state elected officials have been immobilized not knowing what the federal folks are doing in terms of dollars they will send to Iowa for flood disaster relief, and the executive and legislative branches of our state government here in Iowa did not have a plan in place to even begin to respond to the natural disasters of the magnitude experienced in the State of Iowa during 2008. As a result a lot of decisions from the county and city elected officials have been delayed by silence from the federal and state government to date. As a result, flood victims frustration levels of indecision from governmental bodies has continued to grow. Some groups have begun to form informal coalitions, and begun to proceed forward preparing to open businesses, and especially, as winter is rapidly approaching, to make homes livable, or simply just walking away.
At the same time the volunteers and faith communities are ramping up to meet the needs here in Linn County. Our local political leadership asked United Way of East Central Iowa to form what has come to be called the Linn Area Long Term Recovery Coalition (LALTRC) to manage the long term recovery response. A sub-set of that group are the faith communities. At the local level we have formed Faithful Response which is a committee for all clergy and lay leaders from all the faith communities in the Linn County area, and chaired by Pastor Tom Carver (UMC). They have elected Brook Lukes, the director of Churches United, to be their representative to the LALTRC. Brooke meets weekly with LALTRC, and monthly there is an assembly of all those who choose to join Faithful Response.
CrossRoads Mission is involved with Faithful Response, and Pat Kane sits on the Wisdom Group that meets weekly with Brooke Lukes along with other leaders in faith communities throughout Linn County to support her. The process of LALTRC - Faithful Response - Faithful Response Wisdom Group in its first month has worked well for those in the faith communities who have chosen to be an active part of our long term recovery which is projected to be several years due to the significant loss we experienced. We in the faith community need to be present to have a positive impact on the human spiritual suffering, and present to relieve the human physical and emotional suffering, filling in the cracks where governments fail to provide support.
The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee is about half way through the assessment portion of the faith communities national and statewide response to the floods and tornadoes. This is the first step in long term recovery by the faith community. The assessments will provide a more accurate picture to follow on groups as to what is needed in everything from mental health to volunteers to donations, even to how many toilet bowls we will need as we rebuild.
Church World Service is currently doing assessments, training of local groups, and preparing to get publicity out to all the major faith communities at the national level. Pat Kane has been attending flood training this past week with other faith and non profit agencies to understand the magnitude of the interfaith groups that are beginning to put "boots on the ground" here in Linn County.
Catholic Charities Flood Response and Lutheran Disaster Response will begin working with local agencies in Case Advocacy as soon as the assessments have been completed. Case plans will be developed as to the kinds of support each family unit requires, and they will have an advocate to help walk them through the maze of recovery. The United Methodist Committee on Relief, Presbyterian Disaster Response, as well as others currently have "boots on the ground" here in Linn County. As we enter September 2008 we will begin to see the faith communities response to our disaster swell in dollars, in-kind donations, and volunteers as we move into Spring 2009.
The largest and greatest need now and in the future will be housing volunteers who come into Linn County to help us finish the clean up and begin the rebuilding process. In a recent conversation with Pastor Michael Stadie who currently is the Lutheran Disaster Response Coordinator for Lutheran Services in Iowa, Chair of the Iowa Disaster Human Resources Committee's Long Term Recovery Committee has told us that a volunteer center (to house, feed, and provide shower facilities) will not be built in this area like they were in Katrina. The national funds are not available for this $1million plus venture. This means we need to get serious about housing these high value volunteers in our churches, schools, and homes. We need to become creative in how we can accommodate those willing to help us rebuild our communities. The old paradigms we use that block our participation in housing volunteers, for whatever reason, need to be broken. Then we need to develop new paradigms which allow us to open our buildings and homes in faith to those that are willing to enter our communities and restore us spiritually, mentally, physically.

Yours in Christ,

Pat Kane, Diaconal Minister