I Will Stand with You
We sing these words every Sunday as we close worship. "I will stand with you; we will fight the fight. I will stand with you through the darkest night. I will stand with you as God give us might. Hand in hand, hand in hand we will stand."

Soon after the flood the UM (United Methodist) churches of Cedar Rapids stood together. We helped as we could. Some opened their buildings to the flooded churches. Other pitched in and started mucking.

As this was happening churches of all denominations stood together. We soon discovered that different denominations had different expertise in disaster recovery. There was no competition. We all did what we could. And we all stood together.

Then other UM churches in Iowa came to our aid. Soon our denomination’s disaster experts, UMCOR came with much needed supplies. Then UM’s from all over the country began to stand together in our fight.

Living Water now is blessed to provide housing for dozens of mission workers each week. Presbyterians, UM’s, Independents, Catholics, Lutherans all standing together to help.
All of the people who have come to stand with us have learned one lesson: It is better to give than to receive. The next time we close worship, let’s sing "I Will Stand with You" with prayerful thanksgiving for the Body of Christ who has come to stand with us.