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