Churches see providence on flood anniversary

The Rev. Damian Epps missed the Great Flood of 2008 by two weeks.

He had been named pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church and was set to come to Cedar Rapids at the end of June 2008. When he got to the church, he found a wet and muddy mess.

Rather than let the flood and its aftermath deter them, Epps said he and the congregation grew stronger.

“The flood is in the past, we're looking to the future,” Epps, 38, said. “We're not forgetting the flood, we're just operating in the favor of God from the flood.”

Mount Zion is one of dozens of churches in Linn and Johnson counties that faced thousands - and sometimes hundreds of thousands - of dollars in building repairs, rehabilitation or demolition following the worst flood this area has seen.

Now, two years later, most churches have refurbished their buildings and returned. Some have moved on, either renting or purchasing new buildings. A handful of others still are in transition.

From June 11 to when the Cedar River began to recede on June 13 in 2008, floodwaters gushed into Mount Zion's building at 824 Eighth St. SE destroying it and everything in it.

In the last two years, however, the congregation's size has more than doubled, from 300 to just more than 800. The congregation is refurbishing a building at 1200 Second Ave. SE and buying the church building currently housing King of King's Lutheran Church at 6621 C Ave. NE.

Epps said the congregation has been blessed.

“God has a way of just blowing your mind with his purpose and his will,” he said. “I just thank him for the favor, for giving me the opportunity to be part of this.”

Parkview evangelical Church, at 15 Foster Rd., in Iowa City, took on 4 feet of water from the Iowa River's flood, damaging the office, classrooms and worship space and causing $850,000 in damages to the 50,000-square-foot building. The congregation met for six months at West High School before returning in January 2009.

For Salem United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids, the two-year flood anniversary comes with some closure.

The original church building, at 225 First Ave. SW, sits just a block from the Cedar River. Water filled the basement and much of the sanctuary. The congregation has shared space with three other churches in Cedar Rapids and used a vacant church building until it sold last summer.

Earlier this month the congregation voted to purchase the building now housing New Creation United Methodist Church, 3715 33rd Ave. SW, when that church closes its doors June 30.

“We now know where we're going to be landing,” the Rev. John Louk, Salem's pastor, said.

With a new home in its future, Louk said the congregation can begin to move forward.

“Things have been moving very slowly and that was frustrating to a lot of us,” said Louk who, like Epps, came to Cedar Rapids just after the floodwaters receded.

“For about a year and a half there was a fair amount of chaos, of ‘what's going to happen next,'?” Louk, 41, said. “I see this as a real blessing. It's a real gift.”