A Pastoral Letter of Presence and Encouragement
As I write this note the National Weather Service has issued alert number 528. The rains and the rampant threats of flooding across various parts of Iowa seem to just continue unrelentingly.
As your Regional Minister I want to assure you that my heart goes out to those who have been the casualties of those flood waters. Likewise I have received phone calls and communications from other Regional and General church leaders across the denomination.
In a phone call to me yesterday, your General Minister and President, the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, offered her attention and prayers as she is mindful of our situation. She wants you to know of her personal concern as we struggle with this disastrous event.
Businesses and churches have been inundated in varying degrees of seriousness in those run-off and lower lying areas areas – as have residences. People have been heartbroken as they watch treasured places of residence and work be submerged by the engulfing waters. Farmers are helpless as they watch seeded crop lands be submerged by the muddied and swollen streams.
The death of four scouts and the hospitalization of 40 others who were fellow campers put an exclamation point on a season of tragedy and sorrow for many families in this Region.
Many volunteers and community workers are exhausted – mentally, physically and psychologically - as they have worked valiantly to address the emergency and safety concerns of residents. Many have worked hard but lost the battle to the forces of nature. Many will continue to battle the elements, in striving to preserve as much as possible of what remains after the flood.
Community leaders, disaster relief workers, and denominational church leaders are already giving attention to those relief efforts that will need to follow on the heels of the flood when it finally subsides. Pastors have called the Regional Center wondering about volunteer work teams that can be organized to go into those areas following the aftermath. I’ve had similar inquiries from Regional Ministers in the surrounding Regions.
The Region and the Week of Compassion personnel have already been in touch with each other about relief monies to help in some of these arenas. Help will be forth-coming from them as we get clearer assessments about need.
Let me encourage all Disciples across the Region to make over and above gifts to Week of Compassion – designated/anotated for the Iowa Flood Relief effort. Those can be sent to the Regional Church Center, Box 41217, Des Moines Iowa, 50311-0504, if you are desiring congregational credit for your gift. They will be forwarded in a timely manner to the Week of Compassion for this specific useage.
In the meantime, what can we do? We can live-out the very vision around which we have gathered in this Region for a number of years: We are “Disciples together, sharing in the fullness of God’s Table, for the Blessing of All!!” Now is the moment to demonstrate the depth of what those words really, really mean!!!
1. We, can lean on each other. The community relationship we experience with friends, family, and neighbors means everything in such moments.
2. As “Disciples Together” we can render thanks for the health and well-being of family and friends. Possessions may be lost, but the gift of “life and breath and being” means that there is always “possibility and promise” for starting over again.
3. We, as “Disciples Together” can Pray. Give thanks for the life-sustaining faith that was imbedded in your hearts and souls in the most formative moments of your life. (You may want to re-read – and pray – that powerful testimony to faith and hope that is recorded in Romans 8:18-38.)
4. We, as those who are “Sharing in the fullness of God’s Table” can gather in worship to sing together, to pray together, to hear the word together, to be sustained by Communion together. Therein is the spiritual sustenance that will buoy us sufficiently to endure the immediate circumstances.
5. We, as those who exist “For the Blessing of All” can hear God’s word of encouragement from Romans 5:3-5. “. . . 3We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
6. And we, as those who exist “For the Blessing of All” can share our resources, our time, our energy, and our monetary blessings through the Week of Compassion, to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
In the meantime, know that your Regional and General church is walking alongside you and holding you close in their thoughts and prayers as well.
May God bless and strengthen us each one for the journey!
Dr. Richard Guentert,
Regional Minister and President
Christian Chruch (Disciples of Christ) in the Upper Midwest
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