Greetings! I missed sending an email last Friday because I was in Baldwin, Louisiana doing UMCOR training. I stayed at the Sager-Brown Campus and for those of you who aren't familiar with Sager-Brown I'd like to take this opportunity to fill you in! And if you know all about Sager-Brown then this is a refresher and a reminder to spread the word about what UMCOR does around the world.
Sager-Brown is a campus that began after the Civil War as the Orphans' Home Society of New Orleans. It later became a school and in the 1980's it was used as a home for abandoned and abused children. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew hit and UMCOR, responding to a natural disaster, came to this area to help and looked for a place from which to operate and discovered Sager-Brown, which was badly in need of repair. The gym was still intact, so UMCOR and their volunteers moved in. As they repaired and rebuilt Baldwin and the surrounding community, they also rebuilt the rest of the Sager-Brown campus.
By 1994, UMCOR decided this was a good location from which to provide disaster relief to the rest of the world and in 1996 the Depot was opened.
I was able to take a tour of the Depot and was impressed with the wall to wall, floor to ceiling supplies which included flood buckets, sewing kits, etc. - kits that our local churches from across the U.S. have put together. In fact my group was a part of the "blessing of the truck" that was being shipped to Zimbabwe. A very moving experience!
Right here in Iowa storm recovery continues. I had the opportunity to worship with the congregation of Oakville, Wapello and Morning Sun United Methodist Churches on November 16 and had the opportunity to see Oakville first hand. I have seen a lot of devastation right here in Cedar Rapids but I wasn't prepared for the sight of a town totally wiped out. I was discouraged to say the least, but on November 17 I arrived at the Sager-Brown Campus and within an hour after arriving I met a man from N. Carolina who informed me he had been in Oakville last summer working on a house and he is ready to come back. He told me the people of Oakville and Morning Sun (where they were housed) were friendly, appreciative, welcoming folks. AND he said - they really need our help. And so my discouragement quickly returned to hope.
So, let's remember there are a lot of wonderful Christians out there that want to help, we just need to keep talking about the devastation here in Iowa and keep it in the forefront of everyone's mind until everyone has place to call home. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
God's Peace,
Becky Wood
Director of Recovery - Storms of 2008
2200 Heritage Green Dr.
Hiawatha, IA 52233
(515) 238-5346 cell
(319) 393-1607 office
