Relaxing with the crew

The crew is all here and this is our first official "Lutheran Hour"! For those new to the blog, it is a time to relax at the end of the day, and since we are all lutherans, it fits. Although it may not be for an hour and sometimes it is longer than an hour. That is Marlene showing off her skills at ladder golf, or redneck golf or whatever you call it in your part of the country.

Pre-construction work

Along with setting up the campground, we are also doing some pre-construction work. We are removing the brick so it can be reused on the front of the new addition and the outside entrance needs to be removed so the excavation for the addition can begin.

Most of the campground will be on grass, which is great when it rains. All that wonderful grass to the right of the camp is a local cemetery that the church helps to maintain.

Addition to Peace

The addition to the church will be on this end, the north side. They sustained major damage to the basement and decided to add about 5500 sq. ft to this end of their building. The flood waters did not rise above the main floor so they are still able to use the building. The addition will be used for classrooms, food bank, after school programs, and day care. The bathrooms and kitchen will also be enlarged.

Temporary camp

One of the duties of the early arrival crew, Clarence and Steve, is to set up and install the campground for the crew by the first week in May. While we do this we have to set our campers in a temporary location. We are in the parking lot of the church close to water and power, reduced power, until the new camp is ready.

Early arrival

This is probably the earliest start we have ever been on. We were asked to be on site the third week in April. Carole stayed behind in St Louis for a couple weeks to complete all of her appointments before joining Steve in Burlington

Burlington, ND

It has been a very busy spring for us. The entire crew is here and we have started the Mission Builder project for this year.
We are in Burlington, ND which is about 10 miles northwest of Minot, ND. The church we will be working on this year is Peace Lutheran. The building sustained damage to the basement in last years' flooding in the Minot area. The entire basement had to be gutted, mucked out, sanitized, and the members of Peace decided not to rebuild the rooms in the basement, instead they will be adding about 5500 sq. ft. to the building to replace the classrooms and office space lost in the flood. Members were telling us that the water level in the basement was within a couple inches of getting into the floor joists. As devastating as that is, they are thankful they can still use their building. Thousands of homes and business were total losses and are in the process of rebuilding and many have just abandon their homes and moved on.
The project here at Peace is off to a slow start so we are working in the community helping others who have been qualified to receive help through Lutheran Disaster Response.