News
By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service
Iowa farmers lift hay & spirits in Texas
T
he bond between Lutheran farm- ers/ranchers in Texas and Iowa has gotten even stronger—all the result of a conversation and a gener- ous movement of hay bales from Iowa to Texas. In August, drought and desperation
became the table topic among Iowans and Texans during the ELCA Church- wide Assembly in Orlando, Fla. Jesus Escamilla, lay minister of San Gabriel Lutheran Church, Alvarado, Texas, told about the effects of one of the worst droughts in the state’s history. What hay the intense summer heat didn’t destroy, wildfires did. Many farmers and ranchers were forced to sell their cattle out of desperation— they had nothing to feed them. But farmers in towns like Gar- navillo and Luana, Iowa, had a hay crop that was plentiful. Harold McMillin, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church, Luana, was one who heard
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Bales of hay from Iowa are unloaded in drought- stricken Texas. Helping to unload is Diane M. Eggemeyer, pastor of Trin- ity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Miles, Texas.
Escamilla’s plea. “On the Sunday after the assembly, I told my congre- gation about the need in Texas. By Monday evening, we had four loads of hay committed for donation,” he said.
Diane M. Eggemeyer, pastor of
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Miles, Texas, was one of the recipi- ents of the hay. In mid-September she said, “Our area has been declared a federal disaster. We are desperate, we are hurting.” ELCA Disaster Response (www.
elca.org/disaster) provided an initial $25,000 to support the hay lift and it took off from there. “We’re proud to help get ‘Opera-
tion Hay Lift’ started, and we’re hop- ing that the connections between Iowa and Texas can continue,” said Kevin A. Massey, program director for ELCA Disaster Response. “We hope that other faith partners will help. We
know the need for hay in Texas is vast and desperate.” While funds and hay were contrib- uted, transportation was a problem. Finding truckers and trucking compa- nies to haul hay from Iowa to Texas has been difficult. “But we are a people who live in hope,” said McMillin, who’s been in communication with government agencies to arrange for permits and other items necessary for the hay lift. “We need help. We need truckers or trucking companies who are will- ing to haul the hay,” said Eggemeyer, who in early fall estimated that at least 15,000 bales of hay were needed to meet the needs of not only ELCA farmers and ranchers but whole com- munities. “I have had people in and surrounding Miles coming to the church for help. I’m not just fighting for Lutherans but for the community since many have no other options.” The need for hay also includes Eggemeyer’s household. “My hus- band is a lifelong farmer, so we’ve been personally affected by this too. We don’t have any bales of hay left. We are now down to 30 cattle after having 150,” she said.
At presstime, a few hay ship- ments had been made. “When the hay arrived, it was like Christmas,” Eggemeyer said. “I just want to go to Iowa and give everyone there a big hug. Our congregation is writing a let- ter of thank you, enclosing a picture, to the congregations in Iowa. We also hugged the truck driver who delivered the hay and sent him home with a bag of cookies.”
Eggemeyer said she desperately
hopes more trucking companies will step in to haul the hay. She is also working to rally her congressional representatives for their intervention to provide transportation.
“I’m a woman of faith,” she said. “God started it, God is in the midst of it, and God will bring it to fruition.”
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