(Tim) Two weeks ago, our high school men and women went over to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to serve those trying to recover from the terrible flood the community suffered last year. Led by their youth workers, David Abu-Sara, Veronica Allen, Abram Hess, Emily Hess, and Ryan Schnitzer, they returned reporting that the governmental authorities were not particularly helpful to the residents, being better at red tape than getting things done.
The work done by the group was coordinated by church planters, Jeremy Knapp and Michael Langer, of One Ancient Hope (PCA). Our men and women were given a place to sleep in the basement of Hope Evangelical Church (PCA).
The Iowa Independent ran an article on the post-flood political problems and our group made the blurb under one of the pictures...
If you look closely at the pic, you can see (from l. to r.) David Abu-Sara, Taylor Bayly, and Jay Sparks. And if you look even more closely, you can see, peeking through the roo, the head of John Alberson. The details of the blurb should have read:
Disaster recovery volunteers from other parts of the U.S. remain frequent visitors to Linn County. Ryan Schnitzer, spokesman for Indiana-based Church of the Good Shepherd high school youth group pictured above, admitted that he "didn't expect the community to still look like the disaster had happened just last week." The 17-member group was in the process of demolishing this house, and had already completed five other residential projects in the city.
We're grateful for the witness of One Ancient Hope and Hope Evangelical Church in their own community. We're also grateful our young men and women were able to join with them in their witness.
