This was our last week here in Minot, North Dakota.  It has been a very rewarding, and emotional experience.  Sharon and I have made many new friends.  We will miss working with each and everyone of them.  Sharon and I spent a total of eight weeks here, in that time we have had the privilege of working with over twenty different couples and in a few individuals.  We all come different walks of life, such as in the above picture, there is a retired truck driver and his wife, a retired school teacher and his wife, a retired pastor, a retired firefighter, a retired mechanical engineer and his wife, and a retired air traffic controller and his wife.  There are many more like us that make up the NOMADS mission organization.  www.NOMADSUMC.org. 

We have worked on over a dozen different homes, contributing over 4000 volunteer hours.  All of these hours have been lovingly given.  Our wonderful Lord has given all of us the means and abilities, to do His work in this community.  We have help families to rebuild their homes, some that have had to live in small trailers provided by FEMA for over two years.  Not only have some of the families been without their homes, many have suffered loss of jobs, severe health problems, and other hardships that it is hard for us to understand. 

We worked on one house earlier this year that is owned by a nice older woman.  We met her and three of her daughters while we were working.  We told her that we would love to come visit her when we returned to Minot in August.  She said that we would be very welcomed to visit with her.  We when returned we found out that she was in the hospital after suffering a stroke.  Her house was not completely finished, but apparently it is livable.  Her health is not very good, but we have been told that she has gone home at her request.  She wants to live out her life in her restored home. 

Today we finished our work installing sheet rock on the ceiling of part of a house, finished taping and mudding the rest of the house.  This couple has been through a lot.  The wife lost her job right after the flood, causing financial hardship for the couple.  He had a heart attack and had major surgery.  He also injured a hip while working on their house prior to the heart attack. 

I could go on and on telling you about situations like this, but you get the picture.  So, as I said earlier in this post, we have gotten so much out of this project.

Enough of that, let me just post some pictures of the past couple of weeks of the work we did to close out our time here.

We worked hard, but we also enjoyed each other in fellowship.

Morning devotions on each work day.

Enjoying a get together after a hard day at work.

Gathering at a benefit for one of Minot's finest.  Darin, the police officer that I told you about in a past post that has cancer.

Pictures of Darin and his family

And today, when we left the home of Liz and Warren.  Here we are presenting them with a Bible, and closing with a prayer to ask God to continue with their healing, both financial and physical.

We are leaving a lot of sweat, and a lot of tears here in Minot.  God has blessed us with this experience.  Our God is a wonderful God, He does provide for our every need.

Sharon and I are off to Pecatonica, Illinois, for the NOMADS annual meeting.  There we will attend several seminars that will teach us some new building skills, and even a safe driving course.  We will also be taking a leaders training class.  There will be about 150 NOMADS couples there, many we have never met.  I will probably not do any post for a couple of weeks, so take a break from the travels for awhile.

Just remember,

God Does Really Really LOVE each and every one of you.

Gary