Storm cleanup costly for Iowa ministry

AMES, Iowa — For GoServ Global Ministries, based in Ankeny and Albert City, the spring season has been a costly one when it comes to serving people with damaged or destroyed homes. A record number of tornados and several floods hit Iowa between April and June.

The ministry shares hope for storm victims using only donated money.

GoServ Global worked cleanup in the Minburn area in far western Iowa, and later spent months in Greenfield hauling debris from damaged homes to the landfill. That task was huge, and costly. The team on the ground covered 20,000 miles just running from Greenfield to the landfill. Fuel cost topped $500 a day.

“We’ve had a lot of disasters recently and so our domestic team has responded in and down around Minden, in southwest Iowa as well as in Greenfield,” said Mark Henderson, Executive Director of GoServ Global. “They’ve been down there for the last three months, basically our team goes in camps, becomes part of the community, and through volunteers and heavy equipment are able to really help a lot of families.”

The crews work to demolish what’s left of flooded homes, and homes wrecked by a tornado. The idea is to offer hope to families struck by disaster, by removing the debris and saving them thousands. One mission is to offer hope to those in disaster through helping with their property and sharing the gospel of Jesus to encourage people.

“We will tear down the home often and then in Greenfield they did also dig up those basements so you can get people back to square one with a fresh dirt lot where they can begin to rebuild,” said Henderson. “With some of the insurance money they would collect, isn’t usually enough to totally rebuild, and some just having to start over and so we had about a $25,000-$30,000 gift that you’re allowing us to give to them where they can save that money and begin to rebuild.”

The organization is now working to cleanup a huge flooded building in Rock Valley, they will then go on to Spencer, where many home sites need to be cleaned of debris.

“There’s likely months and months of work to do in Spencer,” said Henderson. “A lot of you probably know, if you have friends in the Spencer and Rock Valley area that work is really just getting started.”

Henderson said people should contact GoServ Global if they have a home in the Spencer area needing help. Henderson said he is hoping people will give to help support this mission. He also welcomes people wanting to jump in as volunteers, even if they don’t have a lot of know how.

To learn for about GoServ Global, click here.

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