Three years after flood, Minot keeps the faith
By Barbara Dunlap-Berg
When the unthinkable happened in North Dakota three years ago, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was there. So were countless people of faith, who carried out Jesus' words in Matthew 25, feeding, clothing, welcoming and offering refuge.
On June 24, 2011, the Mouse River overflowed its banks, and floodwaters rushed in at 75 miles an hour, ravaging the basement of Faith United Methodist Church, Minot, N.D. The powerful torrent yanked the refrigerator out of the wall socket and into the raging waters. All that happened, despite a hastily constructed 40-foot temporary dike around the area.
Seven weeks of flooding in the Souris Valley led to the worst disaster in state history. The catastrophe left 8,000 to 9,000 people homeless in central North Dakota. Faith was one of 24 churches sustaining damage so severe that the congregation voted in 2012 to move to another building, out of the flood plain.
"The flood changed my entire ministry here," said the Rev. Debra Ball-Kilbourne, who, in 2011, was just beginning her second year at Faith.
Through every crisis, however, UMCOR remained steadfast.
"True to its reputation," Ball-Kilbourne said, "the United Methodist Committee on Relief was among the first to arrive and, we anticipate, will be among the last to leave."
