by Ben Bradley, BCI Communications Director

There are many BCI partner churches in Cedar Rapids, one of the communities most devastated by the recent derecho. We captured video reports from our pastors and the Disaster Reliefs teams on the field as they share stories about the hard work of recovery and encouraging reports of gospel seeds that are being sown during these tumultuous times. Alongside the destruction, we witness incredible acts of kindness and generosity as God’s people step up to serve alongside their neighbors to clean up their community. With a chainsaw in one hand and a Bible in the other, they reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Disaster Relief: Reaching out with chainsaws & Bibles

Although the process was delayed by COVID-19 restrictions and heavy damage to communications and utilities infrastructure, a massive relief effort has been underway in Cedar Rapids for weeks. After an initial delay, there were SBC Disaster Relief teams that came in to Cedar Rapids from Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio. On the DR project database, there are 850 “crisis cleanup” cases in the Cedar Rapids area alone. The Disaster Relief teams begin the process by calling home owners to get a general idea of the extent of the need and then send out an assessment team to create a more detailed plan. After the cleanup is done, which usually takes between a few hours to all day, all the members of the DR team sign a Bible and present it to the homeowner. They offer to pray with the homeowner for any specific requests they have. The homeowners are incredibly grateful for the service and are usually able to have excellent conversations about life and the gospel.

Pastors in Cedar Rapids are asking, “What next?”

Attention has already shifted away from the destruction left by the derecho as Hurricane Laura wreaks havoc in the Gulf Coast. But the relief effort will last for many more weeks in Cedar Rapids and local churches and pastors still have a lot of hard work and a lot of gospel opportunities ahead.