Flood gift generates new hope

On 1 August employees and friends of David Stollznow, manager and part owner of Rocklea Diesel, gathered to give thanks for the recovery of his business. The event was marked with the 'blessing of the compressor' by Rev Noel Noack, President of the Lutheran Church of Australia Queensland District.

Mr Stollznow, whose business was severely flood-affected, received assistance on the hard road to recovery with a $10,000 gift from the Lutheran Church of Australia's Disaster and Welfare Fund. With it he bought a compressor, a vital piece of equipment for his diesel repair business.

Pastor Noack blessed the compressor and explained that this gift was part of $1.2m donated by Lutherans from around Australia and New Zealand to assist people and businesses affected by the January floods.

Mr Stollznow said the gift was the encouragement he needed to push on with the business. He estimates that his property loss and lost income amounted to $750,000.

His workshop was flooded to an average depth of three metres. Parts and specialist equipment worh hundreds of thousands of dollars were ruined by the muddy floodwaters. Mr Stollznow said he could not see how he could ever recover from the devastation.

But his fifteen employees encouraged him. He was overwhelmed when 80 people turned up the day after the water had receded to start the clean-up. 'People came from everywhere', he said. 'Family, friends of employees, church friends ... they all turned up to give a hand.'

It took four weeks just to clean up the workshop. It was another two weeks before it could be reopened for business.

But it was a struggle. Then the Lutheran Church donated the compressor, and things began to look up.

'Without the support of my friends and the church, it would not have been possible to even think about recovery', Mr Stollznow said. 'But now I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Even though it will take a long time to get back to where we were before the flood, we can look forward with hope now.'