[Oe List ...] Iowa Update--Prayers are still needed

[Margaret Helen Aiseayew]

Dear colleagues,

It is so sad to look out on the fields and see the huge empty spaces where the ponds have begun to dry, or in some cases whole hillsides that have been (are being) killed off by the silt from still larger ponds that washed down.  The experts say that ten percent of the corn crop is gone.  It is really too late to replant corn.  There are some hopeful of planting beans still in some of the flooded areas.  Either way thay have already paid the fuel prices to plant once where there will be no crop.  Some can't afford to plant twice.

I heard a doctor at one of the community clinics in Cedar Rapids talking about being inundated by the injuries that people are acquiring trying to resurrect their homes and property.  Free tetanus shots are being offered at drug stores around the state.  Iowa State University in Ames is hosting University of Iowa (Iowa City) summer courses as the U of I tries to figure out what to do with over 30 damaged (17 seriously flooded) buildings.

And all the water is simply moving downstream.

I hope you can contemplate (a really great spirit conversation going on in my soul) the healing that will be required.  I love this land.  No matter where in the world I traveled, I was always an Iowa farm girl.  My roots feel waterlogged.  It is hard to get your footing and even though you keep on standing, you are not sure that you can trust the world to stand tall, again,  just yet.  Holding your breath is no solution.  You begin to feel yourself tilting for lack of oxygen and eventually you gasp rather than fall over.  You just don't know which way to look:  the direction of the next tornado or the direction of the next flash flood.  We have a community work weekend coming up and the resurrection will be visible again.  Trust takes time.  Hope is just a little beyond our grasp, but visible on the horizon.

In appreciation for your prayers, Margaret
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080618/a8fb9193/attachment.html