‘People over projects’

Efforts to help those in need haven’t ceased, however in some cases, they continue to shift as summer turns to fall with the start of the school year.

On Sunday, Aug. 25, Cornerstone Fellowship Church said goodbye to a group of missionaries who have been in Greenfield all summer helping with tornado recovery. Similarly, Greenfield United Methodist Church discontinued free lunches for the community last Wednesday. That said, both churches, and others in the community, say there’s still much work to be done in bringing help and hope to those who need it.

Reach Global Crisis Response is just one arm of Reach Global, an organization within the Evangelical Church of America (EFCA).

Steve Neubauer, who oversaw the Greenfield efforts for Reach Global with his wife, Joyce, said they were able to reach 40 projects or families over the summer. They brought in about 300 volunteers who, in all, gave about 3,000 hours of work to the community. They welcomed eight work teams in throughout the summer, as well as other one-day teams.

“Our mission is people over projects,” Steve Neubauer said. If a homeowner wants to talk, work ceases and workers were there to listen to them and talk with them.

The Neubauers are from Rogers, Minnesota, and through a small group study about eight years ago, they felt called to do something like work for Reach Global. Steve worked in the engineering world while Joyce was a homeschool mom.

This was their first time coordinating a site. A semi-retired pastor from Minnesota, Ralph Erickson, was also on the team, as was Caleb Lewis, from Louisiana. Cornerstone and Reach Global hired local teens Tia Bower and Alena Rectenbaugh, who were also integral parts of the team.

“We were only going to be here for 2-3 weeks to consult, but we saw the heart the church has, and that’s really what drives it,” Steve Neubauer said. “Our goal is really to follow the mission field that follows crisis. There is a mission field. They need the physical help, but they have emotional and and spiritual needs. Our real objective is discipleship — to bring God’s comfort to the community and holistic restoration to the community. We’re very much people over projects.”

It was a very similar drive that made the Greenfield United Methodist Church start serving free lunches in their fellowship hall. Similar to Cornerstone, this was just one of many things their church was doing to serve the town after the tornado.

“While we’ve stopped the meals, I really want to see us get something set up where one or two times a month we have a supper,” said Deb Blazek, one of the organizers of the meals. “There’s so much fellowship that goes on at these meals and it has felt so good to offer this to people.”

Blazek said it doesn’t matter how people were impacted by the tornado, everyone needs a little bit of each other right now.

Donations were received for many of the meals and church groups from all over the area came to help.

“The day the Spencer floods started, the Spencer church was here serving Greenfield,” Blazek said. “The churches and organizations from outside who stepped up to provide lunch just floored me.”

Blazek estimates that well over 10,000 meals were served throughout the summer. Meat donations were received from the Anita Locker. Two individuals donated large amounts of ground beef and another person donated pork loins.

“Outside of Greenfield, this world’s pretty yucky,” Blazek said. “I am hoping that we can retain this cohesiveness we have right now. I hope people remember what we have in this small town, because it has been really amazing.”