His oath, his covenant, his blood sustain me in the raging flood. When all supports are washed away, He then is all my hope and stay. - "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less," a hymn sung during a Sunday service at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Fargo

FARGO, N.D. - Most of the pews were empty Sunday morning at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, a 112-year-old house of worship only blocks from the temporary clay dikes holding back the Red River of the North.

But one member found an outpouring of support as great as the floodwaters filling the mighty river.

Sharon Kaseman and her two kids came to the service from the home of another church member, where they'd been staying since Thursday, when their home on the south side of Fargo was inundated by floodwater that broke through a basement window and filled the bottom two floors. Three weeks ago, her husband was called up for a 400-day active duty stint with the Army. And Friday will be her last day on the job she's losing as an electrical engineer with Sprint.

"Because I've got so many adverse conditions in my life right now, it's keeping me going," Kaseman said of the church, where she's been a member for 15 years. "I know I can't break down right now. But I know it's coming."

About 30 people were scattered through the sanctuary for the service, and Kaseman and her kids sat by themselves, off to one side of a pew. Even so, the congregation sang hymns with energetic harmony, received communion reverently and lingered over the handshake of peace. The Rev. Mark Strobel spoke of the voice of the Lord upon the waters, and dipped into irreverence to say that if that voice was the sound of dump trucks and helicopters and emergency vehicles, "I'm ready for some peace and quiet."

Strobel said having a service at all on Sunday was "an act of defiance," a celebration in a time of trouble. Others in the small congregation, he said, had also evacuated their homes, or were struggling to keep the floodwaters out. Most were also affected by all the disruption the flood threat has brought -- school and business closings, round-the-clock flood news, weariness from filling and stacking sandbags.

When Sunday's service was over, Strobel announced he was going to ask the congregation to do "an un-Lutheran thing." He called Kaseman forward, then asked the congregation to surround her with a laying-on of hands. The entire congregation engulfed her, each putting a hand on her shoulder or the shoulder of the person in front of them. Strobel placed both hands on Kaseman's head.

"Sustain the Kasemans with your undying love. Be their strength, their keeper, their resting place," he said. When he finished, every person surrounding Kaseman, including Strobel himself, wept.

Kaseman said she has flood insurance on her home. Her husband "had a hunch" and bought a policy last October, she said.

But Sunday her protection was clearly the church members around her.

"We see Jesus in every one of you," Kaseman said after the blessing. "Thank you from my family."

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646