Minot, North Dakota

Minot, North Dakota was badly flooded the end of June and left 4,100 people with homes under 4 feet of water. They have had so many people volunteering to help out but weren't even close to getting the houses gutted so they could be rebuilt before winter hits so they sent a plea all the way down to us in the Twin Cities area (and out to Wyoming/Montana, etc) for help. I was able to go up with a group of 4 of us from the Hudson Ward August 4-7th and help out. We drove up on a Thursday afternoon (it took 10 hours instead of the normal 8 because of traffic) and returned late Sunday night. It was a life changing experience and I loved every minute of it.

We went to the church at 7am to get our first assignment, were grouped with about 7 others and went off to our first house. Our assignment was to completely gut the house down to the 2x4's. The first house was full of stuff that we had to remove first before we could even get to the carpeting/pad, drywall, insulation, etc. It was sad to haul out all of the muddy, soggy personal belongings of this family. I got to shovel out the game room so pieces from Sorry and Pictionary were all sogged in the muddy mucky basement I shoveled out. I heard that this was a military family who had been deployed, so they couldn't get any of their personal belongings out before the flood. So sad.

They built dirt levies around the downtown shopping area and were able to protect a lot of it.

The Souris River--looking pretty innocent now

Our second house-the owner is in an orange shirt with his 9 and 11 yr old sons. They were there the whole time we worked and were so helpful, sweeping up debris and pulling out nails. Such a cute family! They were so well prepared and had put all of their personal belongings on the 2nd level of their home and removed the carpets so it was much easier to gut their home. There was such a heavy feeling of loss, but also of determination to rebuild at the same time. 

I didn't really get pictures of the inside of the homes--it really wasn't a place for cameras we were working so hard. But here is a sample of the hallway in our 3rd home. The stench was nauseating and we had to wear masks because of the mold. It was work that I would never do for payment, but serving together with my crew I felt so close to the Savior.

Me standing by the pile of debris we had hauled out of our 3rd home by the end of the day.

It was normal to see huge piles of stuff like this up and down the streets in front of all of the houses.

The man with oxygen tank is the owner of the 3rd house we worked on. He is a retired army man who lived here with his daughter. With no flood insurance he wasn't sure what he would do. Only 10-15% of the people who were flooded had flood insurance. FEMA was giving $30,000 to flood victims to help them rebuild. That might work if you were young and strong and could do all of the work yourself, but for this man it would be tough.

Malia and Carlos (Tyler's cousin) were so kind and let us stay with them (the other option was pitching a tent on the church grounds and showering in the temporary outdoor tarp-surrounded luke-warm-at-best-showers, which many people did). They had a hot shower and a hot meal for us ready at the end of everyday, and being in their home with their cute kids made me feel at home. Curtis had great fun playing with their kids, Joseph, Lizzy, David and Alaina (not pictured is Jacob--born the weekend of the flood)

Sunday morning we had a brief church service at 7am and then headed back out to work. We sang the song "Lord, I Would Follow Thee", which is now one of my favorite hymns. When we sang the line, "Savior, may I learn to love thee, Walk the path that thou hast shown, Pause to help and lift another, Finding strength beyond my own..." my heart was touched and I knew that we had all been blessed with strength beyond our own in what we had accomplished in one weekend. It was such a privilege to be there and meet the people I did.

On the home front Tyler took the day off of work on Friday and PARTIED with the kids. They went to the movies and saw Cars II, went swimming at Willow River State Park, attended Rib Fest and ate tons of ribs, played the Wii and camped out in the basement together. The kids loved having their dad all to themselves. On Sunday they told the Primary President, "When our Dad is home we get to party. My Mom just makes us work." I'd say we're pretty balanced between the two of us. Life is so very good.