A ‘wall of water’: Iowa floods strike three LCMS congregations

On Saturday, June 22, floodwaters from the Little Sioux River inundated Trinity Lutheran Church in Hawarden, Iowa, and its surrounding neighborhoods. (Photo courtesy of Joshua Lowe)

By Sarah Reinsel

On June 22, heavy rainfall led to catastrophic flooding in northwestern Iowa. What residents described as a “wall of water” hit several towns near the Little Sioux River. Water completely covered the landscape.

The ground was already saturated from heavy rainfall in the spring and early summer, so entire farm fields flooded easily. Sewer systems were also overwhelmed, causing basements of homes, businesses and churches to fill up with sewer water.

Three congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) were severely affected by the flood: Christ the King Lutheran Church in Spencer, Iowa; First English Lutheran Church in Spencer, Iowa; and Trinity Lutheran Church in Hawarden, Iowa. Both Christ the King and Trinity suffered significant damage to their church properties, and the flooding damaged the homes of dozens of families in these congregations.

“The flood touched places that we never dreamed it would touch, even places that were not in the floodplain,” said the Rev. Paul Kaldahl, pastor of First English.

Baby Jesus recovered

At Trinity in Hawarden, the floodwaters took out the entire church basement, which included several Sunday school classrooms, the fellowship hall and the church kitchen. The elevator, HVAC system and the boiler will all need to be replaced.

At Trinity’s parsonage, where the Rev. Joshua Lowe and his family reside, the basement filled up with six feet of water.

“We’ve suffered along with our neighborhood,” said Lowe. “Most of the neighborhood around Trinity was also under water. Many families, sadly, have lost their homes and their neighborhoods too. It’s going to be a very different place in the near future.”

The Lowes lost precious family heirlooms as well as their children’s books, toys and homeschooling materials.

“God is generous to us through His people on a daily basis,” said Lowe. “We have received words of encouragement, support, prayers and financial gifts from all over the United States. … A friend from seminary and his wife have coordinated an Amazon list for our kids, to provide them books and toys.”

Now, thanks to the work of a Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) and other volunteers, both the church basement and the parsonage basement have been mucked out and gutted.

Among the items recovered from the church basement was the church’s nativity scene.

The Baby Jesus figurine had already been lost once before when someone “kidnapped and defaced” and “put all kinds of nastiness” on the piece, said Lowe. It was recovered and restored and now, after temporarily being lost again in the flood, has been recovered once more. Congregation members are ecstatic.

“I keep him in my garage now … to keep him safe and secure, because we’ve lost him twice now and he’s returned,” said Lowe.

Lowe said the figurine has become “a sort of living icon for us, of how Jesus took on our iniquities, our sicknesses and sorrows — and now [we are reminded how] He’s borne our filth too, because we had to rescue [the figurine] from sewage. It’s an amazing proclamation of the Gospel, that the Good News of great joy will be to all people. That’s the message we want to proclaim to the community.”

‘The Lord is merciful’

On the morning of the flooding, the Rev. Michael McGinley, pastor of Christ the King, first noticed, along with his wife, that the basement floor was damp. About an hour later, water began streaming in from the basement drain.

McGinley said he heard a story about another congregation member and his son, who were watching Saturday morning cartoons one moment and knee-deep in water the next.

Many members of First English and Christ the King had to be rescued by boat later that day.

McGinley later found out that the doors at Christ the King had been accidentally left unlocked on Saturday, with the result that, by God’s grace, roughly 20 people from the community were able to take shelter at Christ the first night of the flood.

The floodwaters filled Christ the King’s church basement, with the water coming up to eight or nine feet. And even after the flood receded, the water table remained so high that water continued to seep back into the basement, despite being pumped out once a day.

First English, the other LCMS church in Spencer, was spared from the flood. On Saturday night, when many people were still stranded, McGinley and Kaldahl did all they could to get the word out that people could come and shelter at First English for the night. About 10 people came.

All in all, over 70 families at Christ the King and First English had their homes severely damaged. The homes of two of these families were total losses. McGinley and Kaldahl’s homes were damaged as well. Many families at Iowa Great Lakes Lutheran School, which is located on the same property as First English, were also affected.

On the Monday after the flood, McGinley, along with the church secretaries at Christ the King and First English, began calling everyone on the churches’ rosters and logging those who needed help in a spreadsheet.

“We worked hard at first to make sure no one [from either congregation] was in immediate need, that everyone had shelter, everyone had food, everyone had clothes,” said McGinley.

Currently, the two congregations are worshiping together at First English, with McGinley and Kaldahl taking turns preaching.

“In the end you recover, just at a completely different level because you have lost equity and property value and material value. [It all] went down the river,” said Kaldahl. “So we’ve got all our members grieving different levels of loss. Some of them … their whole house has to be bulldozed, and others lost all their possessions, and others lost their basements. Everyone is grieving and everyone is hurting at their loss.

“But we see the Body of Christ through acts of mercy and showing up at just at the right time. … Everyone I visited was thankful that the Lord is merciful. They realize that this is temporary on earth, and creation groans under the burden of the curse.”

LERT response underway

A few days after the flood, Julie Mann, district disaster response coordinator for the LCMS Iowa District West (IDW), along with the Rev. Michael Meyer, managing director of Congregations and Districts for the LCMS Office of National Mission, went to Hawarden and Spencer to do damage assessment and start planning response efforts.

This is the third major natural disaster that has hit the district in the past three months. Tornadoes struck Minden, Iowa, in April and Greenfield, Iowa, in May.

“A major difficulty with this disaster is that most homeowner and church insurance does not cover damage caused by floodwaters,” said the Rev. Dr. Steve Turner, IDW president.

Manual labor, as well as contractors and technicians, are in high demand. Many families will have to wait months before their homes are back to normal and are facing high costs to replace major appliances like water heaters and HVAC systems.

Volunteers are still needed for LERT deployments, which began July 15. Volunteers will do some mucking and gutting of basements, power washing, sanitizing and drywall work. Meyer noted that “the response to this flood will be extensive; the opportunity for volunteers to come and help will be many. Together, we can help remind the members of these three churches and their communities that God has not forsaken them — by stepping into the mess and serving them with our time and talents.”

Camp Okoboji, a Lutheran summer camp near Spencer, will host one site for outside volunteers, providing meals, shower and laundry facilities, and cabins for sleeping. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ireton, Iowa, will host another site, which will focus on helping congregation members in and around Hawarden.

“In times like this, we remember the rainbow and the promises of God’s divine protection,” said Turner. “But we have so much more than just a sign in the sky. The promise of the presence of Christ is found in the preaching of the Gospel and in His Sacraments. Rainbows come and are quickly gone, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.”

Volunteer to serve in Spencer on a Lutheran Early Response Team.

Volunteer to serve in Hawarden on a Lutheran Early Response Team.

Individuals, congregations and groups in the Iowa District West or Nebraska District who wish to donate to the IDW’s response are encouraged to contact their district office.

Those outside the district who wish to support the relief and recovery efforts through LCMS Disaster Response can:

Make checks payable to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, noting “Disaster Relief” on the memo line. Mail to: The LCMS, P.O. Box 66861, St. Louis, MO 63166-6861.

Visit lcms.org/givenow/disaster , or text the keyword LCMSDISASTERS to the number 41-444 on their text-enabled phone or tablet.

Posted July 16, 2024