Sisters and brothers in Christ,

I’ve been working in Minot, North Dakota this week.  Historic flooding brought the Souris River here over its banks, defeating levee attempts and devastating Minot and other communities like Burlington.  Over 5,000 homes and hundreds of businesses are flooded in these communities.  This flood has been very slow to recede, with water still over the first floors of many structures, and as such, hundreds of homes and businesses will probably need to be condemned and torn down.  A boil order remains in effect for the Minot water system for the foreseeable future.

Pastor David Maxfield (Christ Lutheran, Minot, N.D.) shows the high water mark on the outside of the church. Officials have not yet given them clearance to enter the building for further inspection.

This flood has acutely impacted the Lutheran community.  Lutherans are the majority religious group in this part of the country.  Four ELCA churches have sustained flood damage.  First Lutheran in Minot and Peace Lutheran in Burlington have extensive damage in their basements, with yet unassessed damage from humidity on the main floors.  Augustana Lutheran and Christ Lutheran in Minot had significant amounts of water in the sanctuary of the buildings.  We were not yet able to enter these churches to assess the extent of the damage, but it will certainly be heart breaking.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week with Bishop Mark Narum of the Western North Dakota Synod.  Bishop Narum has been in Minot nearly every day of this crisis, ministering to the affected communities and supporting the clergy here.  Bishop Narum estimates that the combined damage to ELCA churches in this area will be well over $1 million.  With hundreds of members’ homes flooded, along with the churches, rebuilding will be a long and difficult journey.

Bishop Narum gathered many of the pastors and other leaders at Bethany Lutheran Church on Wednesday morning for fellowship and mutual support.  At least 10 ELCA pastors’ homes are flooded, along with the rest of their community.  We spoke as a group about the long-term plans to coordinate volunteers and restore homes, churches and lives.  No one here doubts that this will all come to pass, but for now, there is deep pain.

We need to rest for this moment in the experience of all that has been lost.  I met Gary Johnson, the council president of Augustana Lutheran.  Mr. Johnson shared with me that his grandfather was a founding member of Augustana.  Gary’s three children and a grandchild were all baptized at Augustana.  Generations of worship and prayer hallow a place like Augustana, and it is deeply painful knowing that it sits, for now, cut off and surrounded in a watery place.

I fellowshipped with Pastor John Streccius and Pastor Nathan Mugaas, both of Zion Lutheran Church in Minot.  It was a reunion of sorts, as years ago, during my first call after seminary, I used to attend sermon text study at a church in Hoople, North Dakota where Pastor Streccius was serving at the time.  Both Pastors Streccius and Mugaas have flooded homes at this time, and they and their families are staying at members’ homes.  John and Nathan are sustaining pastoral ministry among the people of Zion Lutheran Church, with about a hundred members with flooded homes, even as they also deal with their own losses.

Augustana Lutheran Church (Minot, N.D.), as seen from a nearby property, completely surrounded by flood waters.

In the midst of so much ambiguity and loss, signs of hope and progress are emerging.  Local planning of volunteer efforts here is underway with Lutheran Social Services and other local organizations.  Training for homeowners is being offered this week on how to safely enter and clean up a flood-affected property.  Yesterday, Mayor Zimbelman informed us that he wants  Lutheran Disaster Response to oversee the volunteer efforts for clean-up in Minot, and he announced the same publicly in a press conference later in the day.  It’s a daunting task, but many organizations together will cooperate to serve here.

I was very appreciative this week for Sherie Heine and her mother, Pat.  Sherie is vice president of the Western North Dakota synod council.  The Heines hosted me at their home in Minot, since every motel room in town is currently occupied by evacuees from the flood zone.  Sherie is leading an important initiative for the synod to raise funds to assist the flooded churches.

Please pray with me for the people and pastors of Minot and Burlington impacted by these terrible losses, and for the many others in North Dakota and elsewhere affected by floods this spring and summer.  They will need the whole church to help them recover.  They will need sustained prayer.  They will need volunteers, when the time is right, to help clean up and rebuild.  And they will need financial support to help restore the damaged congregations, as they plan and hope for a new future of ministry here in the Souris River Valley.

In service,

Rev. Kevin A. Massey
Program Director

Dear sisters and brothers,

The annual conference of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (National VOAD) is taking place this week in Kansas City, bringing together the leaders of nearly every faith-based, secular, and governmental disaster response organization.  The conference is a wonderful chance to network with colleagues and learn about the emerging trends in the sector.  This last Sunday evening, the deadliest tornado in recorded U.S. history devastated the city of Joplin, Missouri, just three hours south of where the conference would begin the following day.

Needless to say, the dynamic at the conference has been very different this year.  Those representing early response organizations – groups like the American Red Cross and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief – re-routed staff to Joplin almost immediately, while those of us who remained at the conference were itching to join them.  But all of us have been united in the knowledge that, very soon, it will be time to get to work.

Director Kevin Massey and Associate Director Mike Nevergall stand among what is left of Peace Lutheran Church

Yesterday, I went to Joplin, along with my colleagues Kevin Massey and Maria Maldonado, at the invitation of Bishop Jerry Mansholt of the ELCA Central States Synod.  We traveled with Pastor Bill Pape, who has been serving as interim pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin for the last few years.  The tornado completely destroyed the church building at Peace Lutheran, but thankfully, all of the members are now accounted for.

We have all seen the images of Joplin on television, with destruction stretching as far as you can see, but there are simply no words sufficient to describe seeing it in person.  The thing that always stuns me with tornadoes is the way they cut a swath of damage but leave surrounding areas mostly untouched.  Driving south on Range Line Road, which runs on the east side of the city, there was not much sign of tornado damage at first. But then we crested a small hill, the disaster area spread out in front of us, and I instantly felt tears well up in my eyes.  Homes leveled to the foundations, cars flipped over as if they were toys, businesses flattened, trees stripped of all leaves and branches.  Block after block after block, there are buildings which will need to be simply demolished and started over again.  For a concentrated area, it may be the worst devastation I have seen in my more than five years with Lutheran Disaster Response.

After a disaster has happened, we receive requests from congregations who want to send supplies into the area.  We also receive requests from

Pastor Bill Pape and Kevin Massey help unload items being collected at a Lutheran elementary school.

volunteers who want to travel to the area to serve, in whatever way they can be helpful.  The early stages of a disaster response can be complicated, as a community figures out how to plan its recovery, and these sorts of well-intentioned offers can sometimes be more of a hindrance than a help.  But today, just three days after the event, we met a couple from Dallas who had driven to Joplin and set up a trailer from which they were distributing grilled hamburgers and hot dogs to anyone who wanted one.  We also helped unload donated goods at a Lutheran elementary school that was receiving things to distribute from neighboring towns.  In this moment, those offers of help were meaningful and appreciated.

At the end of our day in Joplin, we sat with members of Peace Lutheran to talk about next steps for their congregation.  Bishop Mansholt read to us from Psalm 46, and then we heard members of the congregation share their stories about the last few days.  We laughed together, which felt good for the soul in the midst of such a difficult situation, but there were also many tears.  The members of Peace Lutheran are determined to worship together this Sunday, and they hope to do so in the parking lot next to where their church stood less than a week ago.  And they want you to know how important it has been to know that people are praying for them, thinking about them, and asking how to help them, from across the country and around the world.

Bishop Jerry Mansholt meets with gathered members of Peace Lutheran Church

I ask you to continue praying for the people of Joplin, and specifically for Pastor Pape and the members of Peace Lutheran.  Our strength as Lutherans is being there for the long haul, understanding that disaster recovery is a long-distance run and not a sprint.  The people of Joplin will need our ongoing support for months and even years to come.  I hope you will consider a gift to the “U.S. Severe Spring Storms” account, from which we have begun and will continue a meaningful response to this disaster.

Finally, I would like to ask your prayers for me personally and for my disaster response colleagues, Lutheran and otherwise.  This spring has been a steady stream of new disasters, and with hurricane season less than a week away, it feels a bit overwhelming at times.  It is in difficult times like these that I am uplifted by your ongoing support for this important ministry we do together!

In service,

Mike Nevergall
Associate Program Director

Dear sisters and brothers,

My name is Mike Nevergall, and I serve as Associate Program Director of Lutheran Disaster Response.  My colleague, Kevin Massey, and I are in North Dakota and Minnesota this week for what has become an all too regular event – the annual cresting of the Red River of the North.  I wanted to share with you some of what we have seen and heard this week and ask you to continue praying for the people here.

A washed out road, just west of Harwood, N.D.

Similar to large hurricanes, which are given names, each flood is different, as if it has its own personality.  The story of this flood is overland flooding – farm fields and rural roads, small towns and isolated areas.  The crest in the Fargo/Moorhead area, which happened over this past weekend, came in at 38.75 feet, about two feet shy of the record from 2009.  The overland flooding, however, appears to be the worst in recent history.

On Monday evening, we had the chance to ride along with Pastor Jeff Sandgren, of Olivet Lutheran Church in Fargo, as he drove to Harwood to deliver hot meals to the National Guard troops stationed there.  Near Harwood, a small town about eight miles north of Fargo, the water from the Red River, and from the nearby Sheyenne River, is nearly four miles out of its banks, and about 20 miles of the interstate have been closed all week.

Outside of Harwood, I met a farmer as he left to walk his dog.  His home was completely surrounded by water, with some of his outbuildings already under, and the road was completely washed out less than 100 yards from his driveway.  He described to me that the hardest part of the flood fight is the exhaustion from lack of sleep.  “The sump pump kicks on every three minutes,” he told me, “and you don’t dare fall asleep at night for fear that you won’t hear if it stops working.”  You can imagine how that exhaustion compounds – this is the third major flood here in as many years, and this year’s flood fight started on Valentine’s Day.

LDR staff help put together chicken dinners for first responders at Olivet Lutheran Church (Fargo, N.D.)

I am so proud of the Lutheran churches and people we have met here in the valley.  As I already mentioned, the people of Olivet Lutheran have been serving hot meals to first responders – police, fire, highway patrol, National Guard – as they work tirelessly to keep people safe.  The people of First Lutheran, also in Fargo, have partnered again with the Salvation Army to make sandwiches by the thousands to deliver.  Bonnie Turner, with Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, is playing a key leadership role with community groups in coordinating the response on both sides of the Red River.

Even as new disasters happen, we recognize that disasters take months or years, and not weeks, to clean up and be recovered.  Yesterday, we visited with Pastor Del Moen and the members of the Wadena Otter Tail Long-Term Recovery group.  Last June, a tornado tore through Wadena and the surrounding communities, leaving more than 100 damaged homes in its path.  Pastor Moen has been a key leader in the ongoing recovery process, and I am truly proud of his service.

A home outside of Wadena, MN, which was destroyed by last summer's F4 tornado.

So what can you do today to help?  First, I cannot say enough about the power of prayer and what it means to these courageous survivors. Please pray for the people here, for their patience and strength, for their emotional and spiritual health.  Second, the national media has given very little attention to this flood, especially after the larger towns appeared to be safe.  Help us tell this story. Whether by e-mail or on Facebook, send this along to a friend, tell them about what is happening here and encourage them to pray as well.  Finally, I ask you to consider making a gift to the U.S. Floods fund, and we will make sure that it gets to those who need it most.

Thank you for your ongoing support of this important ministry of our church!

In service,
Mike