Thursday, July 12

We have returned to our housing at Des Lacs Burlington Elementary/Middle after our fourth day in Minot. Everyone had strenuous physical tasks today, and the shower felt especially delightful upon our return. It seems likely that sleep will come early tonight for most of us.Our group that has been working on restoring the North Dakota Medal of Honor Memorial at Roosevelt Park continued their efforts to pressure wash and reset 30 tons of stone around the base of the memorial. This memorial is a focal point of the park, and a great source of pride to the North Dakota armed forces veteran community, and restoring the memorial has been an important project for the veterans that are a part of our group. They are hopeful that they will be able to complete the project tomorrow.Another Roosevelt Park group that completed their projects of resorting the park's sundial, and cleaning and painting grills in the picnic area and spent today on cleanup, landscaping, and restoration at the Ward County Historical Society. The historical society is located on the North Dakota State Fairgrounds, and the society is working hard to have as much of their complex available as possible for the North Dakota State Fair, which opens July 20.The group tasked with painting the band shell at Oak Park completed their work today; the band shell is to be used for a community concert tonight, the first concert in the park since the flood in June of 2011. The Minot community is excited about this concert, and it is satisfying to know that our efforts to paint the band shell and repair the benches for seating at the band shell will have an immediate impact on the morale of the community.The group that worked on benches at Oak Park had the opportunity to work on restoration of a residence located on 150 feet from the Mouse River, the source of the flooding. The family that owns the home is presently living in a trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA); the trailer is parked in the home's back yard. Since the flood, the home was "mucked out", with nearly all of the family's personal possessions lost to flood damage. Interior demolition removed all of the existing drywall, kitchen cabinets, appliances, etc. The house was essentially reduced to stud walls and roof joists, and these surfaces were treated with fungicides and moldicides to that the house could be restored and be safe for the family to live in. To date, new rough-in plumbing and electrical wiring has been completed, and new drywall has been hung. The group today completed the second coat of drywall "mud" on all seams, and is hopeful that they will be returning to the house tomorrow to complete the messy task of sanding all of the joints smooth so that the walls may be primed and painted. The family consists of a mom, dad, and their two daughters. At the end of the day, the mom was very gracious and appreciative of the group's efforts to move her home closer to completion.The final group also had the opportunity to work on a residence for a couple that is also living in a FEMA trailer in their front yard. Much the the other groups's home, this one was also deconstructed, and is currently in the midst of restoration. Our group also worked on "muddying and taping" drywall, and installing siding on the exterior of the home. Group members reported that the woman was waiting in the front yard when our group arrived, and she told our group that "she was hoping the group would be coming today." A man who works with UMCOR in Minot told us about this couple on Tuesday evening - the woman lives in the trailer with her husband, who since the flood has had to have a leg amputated due to health issues. Like the other group working on a residence, this group had the chance to witness first-hand the devastating impact of the flood at the personal level, but to also experience the excitement at having "their project" move one step closer to completion.As a group, we thank you for your continued prayers and support, and we look forward to sharing more stories when we return. ks

Wednesday, July 11

Tuesday was a productive work day for our combined work teams from Groesbeck UMC and our partners from the Minnesota churches. Groups continued to focus on projects at Oak Park and Roosevelt Park. Steady progress was made by all of the teams, and improvements are readily apparent at lunchtime and the end of the day. It is a real blessing to see workers ranging from senior high youth to more "seasoned" ages working side by side to reach a common objective. Mentoring is apparent, and young and not-so-young are applying existing skills, and learning new ones each day. Today (Wednesday), some work groups came close to completing projects assigned at the beginning of the week. Other groups continued to work on large projects that will probably remain uncompleted even after we return to Colerain Township. We can see the magnitude of the damage, and the extent of work that remains to be completed before Minot fully returns to some semblance of pre-flood normalcy. A man who lives in Minot and is actively involved in relief efforts spoke to us last evening, and indicated that he expects that it will take about 3 more years to come close to rebuilding just the residences damaged or destroyed in flood. As we travel, we see homes in all conditions - seemingly abandoned with little or no restoration to those where restoration is active and ongoing to those where restoration is complete and the owners proudly display "I'M BACK!" signs in their yards. People we have spoken to have told us that the hardest thing is the sense of frustration and despair at the overwhelming amount of work that remains, but that when they are at the point of feeling completely defeated, a group like ours will arrive and complete tasks or projects that give them a renewed sense of optimism. The people are all genuinely touched, and many are tearful as they share with us their stories, and thank us for the work we are doing. It's humbling to think that the simple act of weeding flower beds, cleaning significant monuments and memorials in the local parks, cleaning and painting grills in picnic areas, and repairing and painting park benches can be such important and uplifting things for the folks who call Minot home. After lunch today, the Groesbeck group spent the afternoon at Lake Darling, a dammed reservoir upriver from Minot. We had time to rest and relax; some of the group canoed on the lake, and we ended our time with a cookout along the lake. We have heard that our work assignments for Thursday and Friday are changing, and that some groups may have the opportunity to work at residences and assist individual homeowners. We have not yet had our evening meeting where assignments for the following day are announced, so I am not certain what the next two days will bring. I will attempt to attach a couple of pictures to this post - if I am successful, one picture will be of Danielle Hase standing next to a tree at Oak Park. Her hand marks the level of silt that accumulated during the flood (approximately 6 feet); the actual water level was 8 to 12 feet higher than this. ks

Wednesday Morning in Minot

Wow...time sure does fly.  We haven't been as diligent as we'd hoped updating the blog, but we have good reason...we've been busy.  Let me share our basic schedule:

7 am-wake up
7:30 am-devotions
8 am-breakfast
8:45 am-pack up
9:00 am-depart for job sites
3:30 pm-return to school
5:30 pm-leader meeting to assess the day and plan for tomorrow
6:00 pm-dinner
7:00 pm-community time (where each group shares about their day)
8:00 pm-evening program
9:15 pm-worship
10:00 pm-quiet time
11:00 pm-lights out

So...we've been working hard.

Some things I'd want to share though.  On Monday, the local Minot news came and did a story about the group working at Roosevelt Park.  Here's a link to that story:

http://www.kxnet.com/story/18985991/kids-volunteer-to-refurbish-park

We have also been trying to post pictures to the Groesbeck United Methodist Church Facebook page.  Here's a link to that as well:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Groesbeck-United-Methodist-Church/265258996851088?sk=photos

Finally, as the day progresses, we have posted some updates and pictures to the Groesbeck UMC and CHAOS//SM Twitter pages.  You can find those here:

https://twitter.com/groesbeckumc

and

https://twitter.com/chaos_sm

Today we work a half day and then have a day for recreation and relaxing.  We will be heading to a wildlife refuge where we can rest, hike, or canoe.  It will be a great time of fellowship and rejuvenation for the last half of our week in Minot.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Oak Park, Minot

The group that I worked with today spent the day at Oak Park, a municipal park located just northwest of downtown Minot. Our group consists of folks from Groesbeck, as well as folks from a couple couple of UMC's in Minnesota. Of great blessing to me personally is that Greg and Dianne Ciesluk, close friends from Cincinnati that moved to Minnesota about 15 years ago, are also on this Minot adventure. Greg and I are on the same work team, and Becky and Dianne are together on a work team. The Ciesluk's are both UMC pastors; Dianne's church is one of the churches from Minnesota. The portion of Oak Park where we worked today was under 8-12 feet of water at the peak of the flood, and when flodd waters receded, they left behind 2-4 feet of silt contaminated with a wide variety of chemicals, human and animal waste, and trash. Heavy equipment was used to remove the silt (which was disposed of in landfills because of the contamination), and park workers and volunteers reseeded the entire parwithin past spring. To look at the park today as an outsider, the visible remnants of the flood are hard to discern; park workers and volunteers have done a tremendous of restoring much of Oak Park. Much of what remains are "detail" projects - the little things that really make a park feel special for the local community. My group at Oak Park spent the day rebuilding benches along the walking trail and near a picnic area. We spent the day staining lumber, and then replacing old water damaged boards with the new stained lumber. It might not seem like a significant project, but there were numerous people from the community who slowed as they passed to watch us work, or greeted us with a warm smile and a cheerful "hello" as we worked, and we had the sense that what we were doing DOES matter to those who call Minot home. At the end of the day, the benches we completed DID seem to brighten things, even if just a little. Other groups at Oak Park primed a new band stand - the plan for tomorrow is that the group will paint the band stand tomorrow. We had several work groups, and a large portion of our Groesbeck group working at Roosevelt Park. This park still shows the almost indescribable devastation that resulted from the flooding. Although work at Roosevelt Park has been ongoing and continuous for nearly a year, there is still a significant amount of work ahead. Pictures from the groups at Roosevelt Park show silt lines on the trees marking the high water mark of the flooding - these marks are 6 to 7 feet above the ground. Folks from Minot told our workers that the peak floodwaters remained at that level for nearly three weeks! We have returned to our housing for the evening, and as we prepare for dinner, we all have had a chance to reflect on what we saw today, and to begin to understand the magnitude of the destruction here. We are thankful for the opportunity to come, and in small ways to help this community to recover from the flood of a year ago. Thanks for your continued support and prayers. Kevin Savage

On the bus...

So, we're on the bus. We've had our first rest stop and are north of Indianapolis. The group has been given their first mission task...make a new friend. We have all been tasked with finding a person we didn't know well and find out these things:

• Name
• How long have you been affiliated with Groesbeck UMC
• What's your "day job"?
• What's your favorite breakfast cereal?
• If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

So...feel free to ask who our new friend is...

 

Posted with Blogsy

Follow us here

While we are travelling to and serving in Minot, ND, you can follow us here.  We'll attempt to update daily with what our group is up to and how things are going.  Feel free to leave comments for the team and we will share them daily.