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Why We Serve

Once a week, usually on Wednesday, we have one or more of our clients come to share dinner with us.  These events are the most special for those of us who don't get to visit with the clients as part of a building crew.  When I was serving in Myrtle Beach last spring, I really enjoyed getting to meet our clients and their neighbors.  This is when they really open up about the trauma they have experienced, and when we can see how much our service matters to them. Almost all of the clients I have listened to share a common feeling that the real value of MDS is that they are around one year, two years, or more after the disaster.  Before I got involved with MDS I always wondered if this was going too far.  Surely they would have completed the work by then.  Only after listening to person after person sharing the timeline of their struggles did I begin to realize why the long-term support is so necessary. Last night at dinner our client was a single woman whose house was severely dama
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What About Weekends?

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Volunteers work at MDS projects from Monday through Friday.  For weekly volunteers, their week is over, and they head home.  For long-term volunteers, it is quite different.  At the Grand Forks project, many of the long-term staff are from the area, and most of them drove here, so they have more options.  Several of them drive home every weekend. Others travel around this part of BC in their RVs and see the sights.  Since I flew here, I don't have any way to get around, so I have been pretty much relegated to the Grand Forks area.  I would like the opportunity to get out and explore BC, but I also just need time to relax without people making demands of me, so I have been mainly hiking or mountain biking. I was the only one at camp one Saturday, which was nice, but I had to make sure I had everything I needed in the bunk trailer before those with the church keys left for the weekend.  The bunk trailer has been my refuge on Friday nights due to the Youth activities I wrote abou
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Busy Friday

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Yesterday dawned clear and chilly, with temps in the 40's.  I fixed my famous buckwheat pancakes for breakfast, although I added blueberries to please the crew.  After we cleaned up from breakfast, Roman, the Project Director, took us on a tour of some of the houses we are building/fixing.  Our first stop was the Lawrence house.  It was situated on the lowest floodplain, right beside the old house, which has been condemned.  The couple currently lives in a mobile home next to the new house.  Kent, the client, is a cabinetmaker, and has done a lot of the work himself.  He also designed the really cool ceiling angles that give the interior a lot of depth and interest.  This view explains why they love the location in spite of flooding Lots of dihedrals make this vaulted ceiling special. Roman (L) talking with Kent, the client. Linda, our head cook, talking with crew leader Jan On the way out, we drove up the steep driveway that took us to the next flood p
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