Cultivating Hope

New life springs forth from a potted plant with a sign that reads “Cultivate Hope” while Diane Wagner from Omaha, NE in the background does just that.

The first day doing flood recovery is an eye-opening experience for almost every group who has stayed with us. Fortunately for some people with St Timothy Lutheran Church in Omaha, NE, it’s not completely new. Several members of their group traveled to the gulf coast last year to help recovery efforts there. Today these good-hearted Cornhuskers find themselves knee-deep in what government officials have tabbed the 5^th largest natural disaster on FEMA’s records since the Hurricane Katrina.

The Iowa Floods of ’08 were devastating. Nearly 1 in 5 Cedar Rapidians were left homeless. Slowly they are coming back with the help of strangers from all over Big Ten country from Pennsylvania to Nebraska. They are working with us through a group called Block-by-block that tries to bring back every home on one block thus giving new homeowners neighbors, safety, and a sense of community. The organization flips houses and sells them for what they were worth pre-flood, thus turning a small profit, which allows them to fix up more houses. The future homeowner gets a newly renovated house at a good price. Our community gets an entire block back. It’s a win-win-win.