Greensburg, Kansas MDS 2008

It’s been over a year since we last published anything to our blog. We have had a year of family related issues that kept us close to home. Days after we arrived home at the end of March 2007 our parents were involved in an auto accident. Soon after that brother Ernie was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had begun building a sunroom which we helped him with during summer and fall. It was good to spend this time with him before he passed away in January 08.

The exciting part of that year was the safe arrival of our twin grandsons Ajay and Maddox in November. It’s been a joy to watch and see them grow and interact with us. In February we helped our son Matthew with work on his first home by assisting with painting and floor covering installation.




After a cold long winter and before the upcoming spring yard work we chose to do four weeks of volunteer work with Mennonite Disaster Service in Greensburg Kansas. Our travels south were on good dry roads all the way.
We stayed in a motel the first night and in our trailer the 2nd night in Grand Island, Nebraska. Here we saw many thousands of Sandhill Cranes feeding and resting before continuing their flights to the Arctic.
We arrived in Greensburg, Kansas on Saturday March 29 to a community that looked like it had been in a war zone. They were hit by a F5 tornado on May 4, 2007.
The trees were topped like these which now show small branches of new growth. The communities new water tower went into operation this week.