For a congregation in southwest Wisconsin and a camp in northwest Iowa, devastating weather events became opportunities to share and receive God’s love in profound ways.

On June 22 a tornado leveled Apple Grove Lutheran Church outside the village of Argyle, Wis. The same date marked the third day of heavy rains in the Iowa Great Lakes region, causing flooding that included East Okoboji Lake, which inundated Lutheran Lakeside Camp in Spirit Lake.

The next day, amid the rubble of its church building and the 98 toppled tombstones of its cemetery, Apple Grove still held its Sunday worship service. In similarly resilient fashion, Lutheran Lakeside not only welcomed campers on June 23 but also provided lodging and day care for area residents affected by the flooding.

“It was exciting to be an example of God’s love,” said Britt Swanson, Lutheran Lakeside’s executive director. “Yes, it was a crisis and yes, bad things were happening. But the first thing we said was, ‘What can we do to help others?’”

Three hundred fifty miles away in Argyle, a radio journalist asked Dan Bohlman, Apple Grove’s pastor, why God would allow the destruction of the 131-year-old church building.

The next day, amid the rubble of its church building and the 98 toppled tombstones of its cemetery, Apple Grove still held its Sunday worship service.

“It just struck me because for us, that question never came up,” said Bohlman, who has served Apple Grove for more than three decades. “The attitude was ‘Stuff happens in life.’ We’ve all gone through hard times as people and families and churches, and I was really overwhelmed at how deep our faith is, that people could say that ‘No matter what, we’ll be OK, we’ll do fine.’”

On a typical Sunday, Bohlman said, 50 or 60 people will gather for worship. The morning after Apple Grove took a direct hit from an EF-2 twister with estimated peak winds of 135 mph, 200 came together.

“That service was really helpful to all of us, and after that we just slowly started the process of going through things,” he said. “We found the brassware that holds flowers up on the altar; it’s dented but usable, and I hope we keep those dents—they’re part of our history now.

“We did find one stained-glass window mostly intact. We found the main part of our baptismal font and we found a banner. Sadly, there wasn’t a lot to salvage.”

Bohlman and the congregation planned to take 30 days for reflection and grief before starting the six- to nine-month process of deciding what comes next regarding a possible reconstruction.

“We wanted that time to pray, take care of each other, laugh, hug and cry,” he said.

“Everyone is feeling the blessing”

Apple Grove’s situation is such that it wouldn’t necessarily have to construct a new building to keep its mission alive. Apple Grove is in partnership with Argyle Lutheran Church, meaning that prior to the storm, the congregation alternated between two worship locations.

“We could take the insurance money and purpose it toward something else,” said Mike Flanagan, council president of Apple Grove. “We could rebuild, though we could never replace the original Apple Grove. Or we could build something there but not a church—maybe a pavilion that marks the spot and provides opportunities for outdoor worship.

“We’ve seen a lot of people express sympathy and ask what they could do to help—a lot of inquiries. We received a check in the mail from a congregation nearby. There are a lot of people wanting to help in whatever way they can.”

That was the prevailing sentiment as well at Lutheran Lakeside, a 110-acre camp that serves 10,000 visitors annually, including eight weeks each summer of youth programming offering “traditional, overnight, weeklong camp experiences,” Swanson said.

One of those weeks was to begin the day after the rain subsided, with Lutheran Lakeside facing a variety of challenges.

Camping space along the quarter-mile shoreline was flooded, with water—including backwashed wastewater—going all the way to a basketball court 100 yards away. The main campfire area, used for lakefront worship, had knee-deep water; all the camp’s roads, totaling about 2 miles, were washed away; three bridges were knocked out; all its docks were 2 feet under water, necessitating the removal of 60 boats; and water seeped into the year-round retreat building.

“In an emergency, when people were in need, we did what God taught us.”

“We had to bring in [about] 20 trucks of gravel just to make the roads drivable again,” Swanson said. “We went and got some extra porta-potties, we brought in potable water and got paper plates for the dining hall. I couldn’t believe the devastation of that water. It just moved so much stuff—we found snapping turtles stuck in the debris.”

Displaced area residents stayed in cabins and at the camp’s RV park, and elementary school children who suddenly needed a new day care option were folded into camp programming.

“We’re really fortunate to have a huge team,” said Swanson, who oversees 35 employees. “We had staff offer to do sandbagging.

“It’s exciting to get to live out your mission and live out God’s love. We teach, preach and celebrate. And in an emergency, when people were in need, we did what God taught us. That’s a really good feeling, when your community and everyone around responds lovingly.”

Bohlman found himself with similar thoughts.

“It’s just wonderful to see that we really do have great depth of faith,” he said. “For me personally, as a pastor, that has been a wonderful revelation. I’d rather not have had that revelation in that way, but it’s heartening, and I think everyone is feeling that blessing, and I think it will bless us down the road.”

Steve Lundeberg
Lundeberg is a writer for Oregon State University News and Research Communications in Corvallis.

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Congregational life, Mission & ministry, Religious news & social issues   Camp, children & youth, disasters, ELCA congregations