About Mennonite Disaster Service and the Grand Forks Project

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Mennonite Disaster Service Information


Find out about Grand Forks and the MDS response to the flooding in 2018








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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 whos...
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Sunday, August 25

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I woke up at about 5:30 A.M. which is about the same actual time I would have woken up in Richmond.  I figured out that I can pretty much keep my body on Richmond time during my stay here since I will be getting up around 5 Monday-Friday, and getting to bed around 9.  I had some breakfast and then walked around our end of town for a while to help my legs recover from a day of economy-class travel. Connie and I decided to go to the local Mennonite-Brethern church, which I had been unable to find in the local church listings.  It turns out that it is called the Gospel Chapel. They have a very dynamic congregation, and an extremely energetic youth group, who made their presence known (in a good way) during a mission send-off for one of their own, as well as their singing during dismissal of the children for Sunday School.  They have hymnals in the racks, but the music is 100% praise team with the words projected on the wall. Not my favorite, but everyone was reall...
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Wednesday August 28: Birthday!

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Today was my 63rd birthday, and one of the few that I have not been home to celebrate.  At the breakfast table, the group sang Happy Birthday, and gave me a nice card. The other cool thing was that Mark had arranged for me to go out to the most distant work site near West Bridge.  It was about an hour northwest of Grand Forks, in another area that had sustained serious flooding.  The drive included some of the most scenic views so far.  We also drove through an area that had experienced a severe fire a couple years ago.  I don't think it was too hot a fire, since the ground was again supporting growth and the trees had not been totally incinerated. At West Bridge, the existing house was pretty much a total loss, but there was a garage sitting higher and away from the river.  MDS and the property owner came up with a plan to transform the garage into a house by using the good parts and adding more.  Karen, the owner, was working i...
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