Zabel family receives support for Christmas

Countless friends, co-workers, acquaintances and even complete strangers donated gifts to the Rachel and Steve Zabel family last week after their house at 625 E. 10

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St. in Washington was damaged by fire. First Christian Church in Washington collected gifts for the family. The gifts took up a large part of the church?s fellowship hall.

Family-friend Darren Brown hosted the Zabels for Christmas dinner at his house in Wayland.

?They?re doing all right, trying to stay upbeat,? Brown said. ?When they talk about home, it?s not what it was before. Home is in a hotel all of a sudden.?

Brown knows the Zabels through a Christian motorcycle association. He said he visited the Zabels in the hospital after a motorcycle accident.

?After they moved to Washington, I saw them at a yard sale one day,? he said. ?We started hanging out after that. We would go to their house for birthday parties.?

Brown said the number of gifts that the community gave to the Zabel family was impressive but not surprising.

?It doesn?t surprise me at all,? he said. ?We have a really good community to live in. I?ve lived in communities all across the country in 43 years. We have some very good people in Washington who are very supportive. I know people from Cedar Rapids who learned about it who sent donations in the mail. It did surprise the Zabel family, though. They didn?t realize there was such support out there. To realize they had that kind of support was overwhelming. The family is really grateful.?

The Zabels have three children, James, 13, Keith, 10 and Nick, 4. Eva Arnold knows the Zabel family through First Christian Church, and particularly its youth group, ?Acts 29,? which James attends. When Eva heard about the fire at the Zabels? house, she and her mother took a basket of fruit to their hotel room. The next day, she and another member of the youth group took cookies to them.

?James is one of the core members of the youth group,? Arnold said. ?He is a real sweetheart.?

The youth group collects Christian literature to take to Butler, Illinois, where it is packaged and sent all around the world. Arnold said James had gotten some Bibles to send to Illinois but they were lost in the fire.

?When you see something bad happening, you always want to pray for that person,? she said. ?When it?s that close to home, you can show your support in a more tangible way. You jump on the opportunity to show what you can really do for the person.?

First Christian Church pastor Colton Clay said he was glad that so many people donated items to the Zabels.

?The gifts filled up about half the fellowship hall,? Clay said.

Clay said many members of the church donated goods and that donations came from throughout the community.

?A lot of people just wanted to help someone in need,? he said.

Clay said many people brought food. He said the church also has its own food pantry which supplied the family with food.

Eva and Fred Bickhart attend First Christian Church and they were impressed with the number of donations.

?I was surprised at the variety of presents,? E. Bickhart said. ?Fred and I were saying to each other that God is expressed through people. There probably wasn?t anyone in our church who didn?t bring something. You won?t come into church without getting a hug. It?s a very loving place.?