LCC Donors Help Families Displaced by Floods in Fremont, Nebraska, During Recovery

After Amy Glause, Financial Administrator at Trinity, received yet another donation this week from Lutheran Church Charities, she stated it is hard to believe how generous donors are continuing to be, but knows it is a real blessing to them.

Trinity Lutheran Church in Fremont, Nebraska, has been helping families they served at their church shelter gut their homes, pay security deposits and 1st month rent for homeowners who now have a mortgage and rent but cannot live in their home due to the damage, and purchase basic household items and furnishings. Everyone is waiting for insurance or FEMA but need help right now. Trinity is very thankful to be able to have funds to be able to help the community get started in their recovery.

On Thursday, April 4, Allison Mollenkamp from NET News, Nebraska’s PBS & NPR Stations, interviewed Pastor Anthony Gerber and several other representatives from churches in Fremont as part of a story on how “Faith Communities Work to Help Flood Victims.” Here is part of the interview:

The gym at Trinity Lutheran Church and School in Fremont, Nebraska is back to its main purpose this week: gym class. A few weeks ago, it had a very different use: housing flood evacuees.

Anthony Gerber is director of ministry for Trinity Lutheran. He describes the shelter the church housed. “This, I mean, this is pretty much what housed everything. We had tables with different food, clothing, stuff like that,” Gerber said. More evacuees also slept in the school’s chapel.

The church served as a shelter for four days and housed nearly 130 people at one time. The Red Cross sponsored the shelter, helping fund meals and supplies, but the volunteers were members of the church and the community. They kept track of what spots were available in the shelter, but Gerber says a lot of their time was spent on something else.

“Really our big volunteer hours were just spent with the evacuees. We had ... lots of different people who came in and just said, ‘Hey, let’s do a puzzle. Let’s play cards.’ Cause we had a lot of kids who were staying here with their families, and the community absolutely came together to do everything they could to help," Gerber said.
Trinity Lutheran has also been taking and distributing donations for flood victims, including from around the country.

“We have Katie the Comfort Dog here at Trinity. She has been to multiple disasters throughout the U.S. so because of that, there have been donations that have come to us from people saying, ‘Hey we want to help Katie and her church,'” Gerber said.

Read Article & Listen to Interview

All of the volunteers working through Trinity Lutheran is a great example of how we are all called to be the church and serve those in need. Please continue to generously support the families in Fremont, Nebraska, during their long recovery.

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