Red Lake, MN – May 19-25, 2024

Six Bethel College students as well as Cleo Koop, Gail Graber and Jamila Branch arrived from Kansas to join our long-term volunteers this week.  Monday evening, Inko Ndlovu-Mathuthu, year-long volunteer from Zimbabwe, joined us as a crew leader, bringing the total amount of volunteers this week to 17.

At Tony’s house, David’s team painted the siding and trim, installed 5 windows and siding; removed the two old porches and built two new porches as well as steps for the porches.  At the Kingbird house, John, Janis and Inko’s team finished stripping off the old siding, installed new siding and proceeded to caulk and apply a second coat of paint.

The week started out with the sighting of a mother bear and her sweet little cub when Don and one of the college students were unloading trash at the transfer station.   It was delightful to have Nathan, from the Red Lake Nation Youth Program, join us for two days.  Through this program, youth have an opportunity to learn construction skills and our volunteers can get to know some of the local youth.  Wednesday evening Mrs Burg from the Nation joined us for dinner and gave some good insight into the many programs available to the tribe.  Our schedule was adjusted during the week because of numerous rain showers but the team moved forward in a timely fashion despite the delays.

Next week we will finish the work at Kingbird and Hill and begin repairs at the Strong’s house.

Cleo provided an opportunity for the Bethel students to discuss the publication MCC wrote about the history of boarding schools.  He also relayed information on how MDS began and asked several of us to share about why we serve with MDS.  Everyone enjoyed lively rounds of “5 Crowns” in the evenings until the curfew sirens blew.  Saturday was a beautiful day for some of our long termers to take in the Memorial Day Pow Wow at Cass Lake.

Rachel Horst, reporting for the long termers, which included Don Horst, PD, David King, CS, John Stutzman, CL, Janis Ott, CL, Inko Ndlovu-Mathuthu, CL and Dottie & Tim Weber, HC & AC.