Sinking In

Well hello, all. The excitement is over. The river has done its damage and is on its way down, leaving behind more destruction than anyone can imagine. All of the adrenaline that comes with something catastrophic has passed, and people are starting to think about the real implications of what the past week's happenings will really mean.

As a waitress, I could not escape from all of the conversations with my customers...almost all of which were about the flooding. Can it just go away? Yes, we got news coverage, and now the world knows about Cedar Rapids, but can we hit rewind and wake up from the dream? Well, I guess I'm doing my part. I leave for Spain on Tuesday. I keep telling people I'm fleeing the county, but really I do need to get out of here. A nice vacation in sunny Spain. Ahhhh. It will be wonderful. So I am greatly looking forward to it. It comes with a strange sense of guilt, though, that so many people in my home will be in need and I will be loving life far away. There will still be plenty of work to be done when I return, though. I am not worried. I believe that the rest of my internship at Theatre Cedar Rapids may involve scooping river muck and sewage and dead fish out of the basement and tearing out the upholstery of the main seating. I have designed a show there, I don't need more resume stuff if they need help in other ways. I'm completely willing to scrub walls. Just give me a bucket and a sponge.

Pastor Steve talked today about not worrying about where our next meal, clothes, or housing is coming from. Strangely enough, that sermon was planned long before the flooding. God works, it's great. Another glimpse of God is the sheer timing of my adventure abroad. I really wanted to go earlier in the summer, but couldn't. And although I would like to be able to help out around here, I really do need a break. God's timing is perfect.

Funny story on how I have personally been affected by the waters:

My debit card expires at the end of the month. I will be in Spain. Hmmm...no debit card to get cash out. I called my banker and they were going to send another one. It was supposed to be here Friday. All mail was stopped on Friday. Funny story. We'll see if it gets here tomorrow...

Also, I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled after I come back...I don't know if that office is under water. But they'll be fine when I get back. Just interesting.

And lastly: the only place to change money in CR is at the US bank building downtown. I changed money on Tuesday. I almost waited until Thursday. The U.S. Bank building's first floor has about 4 feet of water in it. Had I waited...No Euros for Becky. God is Good.

So that's my life. I in no way think that I have the raw end of any deal. On the contrary, I have been greatly blessed. Beckett's stayed open and served with paper plates and napkins and plastic silverware and cups to conserve water. It was interesting, but hey, we didn't have to roll silverware at the end of the night!

Please continue to pray if you like. There are at least 8 families in my church who have been evacuated from their homes. I think the estimate of the city is between 10,000 and 30,000 people displaced. A large range, I know. Facts are hard to sort through right now.

Happy Sunday

Pictures of History

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...or horror
They're off the internet, so I cannot take credit.

1. A picture of the courthouse and 2nd avenue bridge at normal water levels.



This next picture is of the same courthouse as the first...and the same bridge, except you can't see the bridge because it's under water. This is what it looks like today. Literally, today.



Here are some pictures from downtown





This is a pic. of downtown. If you look in almost the dead center of the picture, you can see a car in the water. And the tops of parking meters.



The main building in the back of the picture is the county jail. They had to evacuate it and send all the inmates to state prisons for now.



Here is the Quaker Oats factory. Maybe oatmeal prices will go up? ha ha. And the road is I-380--the only way to cross the river in CR.



Flooding in a residential area.


The intersection of Ellis blvd and Edgewood Rd. Obviously, both are impassable. Oh, and watch out for those deer...



And here is an aerial view of downtown. The banks of the river are beyond the bottom of this picture. This is the area West of Downtown.



That's the worst flood in Cedar Rapids in history. Oh, update on river crest height. It's now estimated to reach 32'. That's almost 14 feet higher than '93. We're getting into the 1000 year flood plain. We're definitely past the 500 year plain.

Theatre Cedar Rapids, where I'm interning this summer, had four feet of water in the basement last time I knew. The problem is that the pit, green room, and seating on the main floor are below street level, which is flooded. That means the possibility for water in the main theatre. Very bad. And props and costumes are stored in the basement. So that's not a good situation.

This morning/afternoon, Mom and I went to Loyola-Gibson Elementary school and helped set up cots and carry things in for some people who had to evacuate. And we made snack bags for some kids. It has to be so hard for so many people. They have to move from one shelter to the next, because the other one lost power or flooded, and they have to sleep on hard cots in a gym with hundreds of other people. It's like I went back in time to last summer to Midnight Mission, except that these people had homes, they just couldn't get to them.

Please keep praying. There are a lot of people without their own homes tonight. Thank you.

Making History

I am watching history right now in my life. If you don't believe me, just Google "Cedar Rapids flood" and read some stories and look at ridiculous pictures. I guess I don't know how much the world knows or cares about little old Iowa, but seriously, we have gotten hit hard. Not me, personally, but Iowa in general. It's tragic. First, all the tornado's, especially in Parkersburg. People lost people they care about and everything they had. Then, this flood. There was a town, I can't remember which one, that was devastated by the tornado's a couple weeks ago, and they are now evacuated because of flooding. So even those surviving homes may now be full of water, which leaves behind a terrible amount of destruction.

One of the worst floods on record here was in '93, and people still talk about it as the "big flood" and the reference for all other flooding. The peak of the Cedar River, which goes right through the heart of downtown, was approximately 19' 3" that year. This Friday, the river is supposed to peak at 24' 6". There are people that live over 6 blocks away from the river downtown who have been evacuated. It's just so unthinkable. And Palo, a little town about 10 minutes from where I live, is completely evacuated. I actually went there this morning to help fill sandbags. The people that I was with are probably in an emergency shelter tonight. That's a crazy thought. I met one girl who is from Robins (not flooded), and she had been in Parkersburg yesterday, drove to Palo, and from 5:30-10:30 last night, worked on sandbags. She was there at 8 this morning when I got there and kept working when I had to leave. That is the kind of person that gets things done and helps people. I'm glad I met her. I wish all of those people the best. I'll be praying, and I'm so sorry.

Thankfully, no one has been hurt. I hope that it stays that way. Pray if you can. Thanks.

Searching for Who Knows What

Have you ever known someone and had a distinct feeling that their life is at a turning point? And then there are those who have deep questions and doubts, but who don't have any answers and don't know where to find them. Everyone seems to be searching for fulfillment, for answers, for something solid to hold on to. And then there are those who say they have the answer, yet that too must be defined and hammered out. So does anyone truly have the answers? Yes, this is used by the Church many times, saying "The world is searching for a purpose in life, and Jesus is the only one who can fill that hole we feel." But what happens when those who have experienced the incredible love of Christ begin to face the confusing and conflicting ideas of what Christianity is to look like? What happens when they are faced with Armenianism and Predestination? Or infant baptism and believers baptism? What happens along the way to the childlike faith that says "God loves me, and I love him, so I will do what he tells because I know it's best"? You know, like the song, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey." When did Faith become Technicalities? When did "Follow me and sin no more" become "Just go to church and don't drink or cuss anymore"? Sometimes people tell me, "Wow, so cynical at such a young age!" Sometimes they're right, and I work on that. But you know what? I have rarely heard those words out of the lips of a brother or sister in Christ. Perhaps that is because I act differently around them, but perhaps we as Christians have lost touch with what it really means to be a child of God. To listen and love him as our father.

Perhaps we have stopped searching.

And maybe it is those who continue to search who truly find what they're looking for. I hope that those I know who are searching can find their answer in Christ. I pray that they use their seemingly unending supply of positivity in the work of our Father. And I pray that the answer they find gives them such joy that they will never stop searching the endless depths of God's Love and Grace.

End of a Chapter

My best friend is married. The ceremony and reception is done, and all the planning seems to have evaporated, for it is no longer relevant except in memory and the experiences it produced. I have this confusing feeling of joy and sadness. Joy that Lee and Luke were so happy and are now together the way they've wanted for so long. Sadness because although our little huddle hasn't changed in appearance, it has changed in character. Leanna is a beautiful, talented, and ecstatic young woman who just married her knight in shining armor, and that will change all of us. I've been there since before the beginning, and it's strange to see the end of the beginning, and the beginning of a whole new adventure that they will share together, side by side.

"I wish you the best and I wish nothing less than everything you've ever dreamed of, and I hope that you find love along the way."

I wish you all the joy and happiness in the world.

I found this poem in a book for a class a couple of years ago, and I love it. So I thought I would post it here. It's perhaps a little too intimate for an open-air blog such as this, and if you're not a romantic, perhaps this should be censored for you, but I'm posting it anyway. This is what I wish for Luke and Leanna Showman now, and 30 years down the line:


Prayer for a Marriage
Steve Scafidi

When we are old one night and the moon
arcs over the house like an antique
China saucer and the teacup sun

follows somewhere far behind
I hope the stars deepen to a shine
so bright you could read by it

if you liked and the sadnesses
we will have known go away
for awhile--in this hour or two

before sleep--and that we kiss
standing in the kitchen not fighting
gravity so much as embodying

its sweet force, and I hope we kiss
like we do today knowing so much
good is said in the primitive tongue

from the wild first surprising ones
to the lower dizzy ten thousand
infinitely slower ones--and I hope

while we stand there in the kitchen
making tea and kissing, the whistle
of the teapot wakes the neighbors.

I love you kids. Congratulations.