About Mennonite Disaster Service and the Grand Forks Project

Find out about Mennonite Disaster Service by clicking this link:

Mennonite Disaster Service Information


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








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Read more

Busy Friday

Image
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 drivew...
Read more

Time Machine Day

The past few days made me realize that I needed to take drastic action with my blog.  It is obvious that I can't adequately catch up and keep up.  Perhaps after showing you my typical schedule, it will be more obvious as to why I am perpetually behind. 5:00 a.m.  Wake up 5:15          Unload dishes and place on cart.  Start coffee. 5:30          Start putting lunch items out so the weekly volunteers can pack their lunches 6:00          Volunteers are packing their lunches.  I keep everything stocked.  I also start working on breakfast.  If I am not making the main dish, I prepare a fruit tray and make OJ.  We don't have a lot of fridge space, so most breakfast stuff needs to be done now.                  If I am making the main dish, the other cook (now Glennis) does those tasks.  We also have to keep washing utensi...
Read more