Lutherans extend ‘hand of God’ after Nebraska tornadoes

By Stacey Eising

“I could see just a little bit through cracks above me. I tried to lift the couch off of me and I couldn’t. I didn’t know the house was gone.”

Cindy Gage, member of Living Water Lutheran Church in Omaha, Neb., was sitting alone in the downstairs of her home in nearby Blair on Friday, April 26, when an EF-3 tornado tore through the area. She had just run home from the hospital in town, where her husband Roy was recovering from open heart surgery two days prior. She had come home to let out their dog when the weather worsened.

The rest happened quickly: She saw the branches on the tree outside thrashing more and more wildly, she saw the door blow in and leaves coming into the room, and then the couch she was sitting on flipped and she was trapped under it.

The tornado that hit the Gages’ home was one of a deadly outbreak of more than 100 confirmed tornadoes that stuck Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa April 26–27, killing four people and leaving destruction across communities.

Within two days of the tornadoes, Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) volunteers — a disaster response network of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) — had started arriving at Divine Shepherd Lutheran Church in Omaha, which is serving as a base for response efforts in the area. Over the following week, 42 LERT volunteers traveled from South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, as well as other parts of Nebraska, to aid in recovery efforts. In addition to hosting the volunteers, members of Divine Shepherd pitched in to provide food and other care for the volunteers during the response.

‘They’re here for us, all these people’

Five days after the tornado, on Wednesday, May 1, the Gages sit on a weathered couch in the front yard of the property where they have lived together for the past 38 years, where they reared their children and built their life.

When Cindy was rescued from underneath that same couch the week before, she found herself climbing “up and back down” a huge pile of rubble. When she made it to the ground, she could not recognize where she was. There was no house. The home and its contents were scattered through the yard and flung far through surrounding cornfields. The Gages’ trees were splintered and ruined. 

Roy, who was discharged from the hospital just a few hours prior, is seeing this scene for the first time. 

“It was our pastor who first pointed out that this couch was ‘the hand of God,’” says Roy. The Gages had no basement, and their home was built of cinderblocks. The couch that flipped over shielded Cindy from an enormous pile of debris.

Roy says that they have seen the hand of God in much more than the couch in the past week: “God’s hand has been in everything. From Cindy being taken care of, to my open heart surgery, to all of these wonderful people who have descended, all of these people with nothing but love in their hearts who are doing all this.”

Behind the Gages, spread over their property, are more than a dozen LERT volunteers in neon vests and protective gear gathering debris into piles, raking up glass, searching for intact possessions, and clearing fallen and gnarled trees. Rubble has been piled into large heaps on the lawn. The sound of chainsaws fills the air.

“I remember on my wedding day, looking around and being amazed, thinking, ‘All these people are here for me.’ And today is the only other time I’ve ever thought of it like that. They’re here for us, all these people. It’s unreal,” says Cindy.

‘To show them His love’

The LERT volunteers who served in the Omaha area were there to show not only their own love for their neighbor, but also the love of Christ working through them.

“We are out here because we know that God loves us,” said Matt Flynn of Immanuel Lutheran Church, East Dundee, Ill., a LERT volunteer who served as the project leader at the Gage property. “We also know that God loves the people who have just gone through this disaster, and we are out here to show them His love, to let them know that in their upended lives they are not abandoned.”

Flynn hails from the LCMS Northern Illinois District, which has had a strong and organized LERT presence for years.

But the LERT network continues to expand in districts across the Synod. Through training sessions held at congregations, thousands of LCMS members are being equipped to be ready to respond with care and mercy when a natural disaster strikes their area.

At a property down the road, the Summers family is serving alongside other LERT volunteers. Jeff and Azure Summers and their 9th-grade daughter Cora, of Zion Lutheran Church in Rapid City, S.D., took the LERT training together last year. This is their first LERT deployment.

“I love helping people,” said Cora, “and I just thought it would be a good way to serve. I love that our team is Christian and [that] we can work with people while spreading the Word.”

This property belongs to Karen Tighe, who has lived here for 52 years. Her house is still standing, but 18 trees — each over 18 inches around, and most closer to 30 inches — were splintered by the tornado and have to be cleared from her yard. Tighe planted all of the trees herself. LERT volunteers noticed the damage to her property and came knocking on her door to see if they could help.

In addition to helping with raking and clearing debris, Cora Summers spent a good part of the day inside Tighe’s house, where Tighe lives alone, keeping the homeowner company. LERT training emphasizes that while the recovery work is important, volunteers should look for any opportunity to encourage those they serve, especially sharing with them the hope and comfort of the Gospel. This is something that volunteers of any age or ability level can help with.  

“What we’re about is serving people. The jobs are there to be done, but we’re serving people, so if people have spiritual needs as well as the physical and material needs, we take time to visit with them. We’ve been told if the job is there, but somebody wants to talk, we just drop our tools and talk, because it’s all about Jesus. It’s all about serving Him,” said Mick Onnen, LCMS Nebraska District disaster response coordinator and the coordinator of the Omaha disaster response site.

“What distinguishes our LCMS Disaster Response LERT teams is our dual commitment to body and soul care. While we engage in rebuilding lives, we also prioritize the nurturing of souls amid dire loss,” said the Rev. Dr. Ross Johnson, director of LCMS Disaster Response. “LERT volunteers grasp the essence of the mission: to demonstrate love for their neighbors through both words and actions. They engage in physical labor and reconstruction, all while sharing the transformative love of Christ: ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ’ [Gal. 6:2].”

Throughout the week, volunteers worked on properties of people connected to local LCMS churches and schools, as well as others affected by the tornadoes.

To learn more about Lutheran Early Response Teams or sign up for LERT training, visit lcms-lert.org.

Posted May 8, 2024