MDS Team Goes to Princeville

November 4-9, a team of seven from our congregation—Ray and Betty Hertzler, Ron and Rosalie Moyer, Bill and Bertha Schaefer, and Sheila Schaefer—traveled to Princeville, N.C., to volunteer their time and skills with MDS to help with the aftermath of the 1999 flood. Princeville is located seven miles from Rocky Mount on the Tarboro River. The night of the flood, thirteen inches of rain had fallen in one hour. A long-term team of five from Canada has been overseeing the project at Princeville.

The following diary was kept by Bertha Schaefer.

We left Powhatan at 2:15 and got to Princeville at 5:00 P.M. Our destination was what had been Princeville's campground or park before the 1999 flood. The city has put trailer modules with three bedrooms and two baths in each for the MDS teams and supplied them with water and electric. The first workers closed in the pavilion, and it is now a dining area. The directors live in a trailer with a kitchen from which the full-time cook does all the cooking. The food is very good. There are two large transport trailers for tools and supplies.

This evening as we got together with the other workers, the directors made us feel at home and gave us a list of work projects from which we could choose our preferences. Since Betty said she liked to paint, six of us ladies volunteered for that project.

Today we ladies painted all day in a new house while Ron and Ray worked at another house doing trim work and hanging doors. Bill worked in another house, tearing out cabinets that needed to be replaced and building a deck.

Several of us were assigned other jobs, and the husbands were sent to help Betty and Rosalie paint and set doors and trim. On our way home to prepare for supper, we stopped by to see if Betty still liked painting! They had the first coat on, but they had been given the wrong color for the second coat, so we got off a little early to scrub paint off ourselves before supper. After supper we enjoyed fellowship and singing, with Sheila playing the guitar.

Today Sheila and I helped Bill break, bend and put up soffit. In the evening an 84-year-old man and his sister were invited for supper and fellowship. He told us about his flood experiences. The water completely covered his house. Dick, our director from Manitoba, gave him the keys to his new house and helped him move in. They also presented him with an afghan their church group in Canada had made. He was thrilled. God is good. Our Canadian friends (5) were so impressed with the music that we nearly wore Sheila out. There are twenty-eight of us here this week, with four from Indiana, three from Pennsylvania, one from Maryland and one from another part of Virginia.

Thursday:

Today Sheila, a lady from Canada, and I cleaned two houses; the one we got ready for occupants and the other for carpet. Betty and Rosalie got the correct paint and finished painting the house. They got to meet the couple who will own the home. What a thrill for them! Ronnie worked on plumbing sinks, Ray helped, and another MDSer hung bi-fold doors on closets and helped paint. All the time, God is good!

We worked until noon on our jobs, having accomplished a lot but leaving unfinished work for the next group. MDS has completed a total of nineteen homes, and three more are nearly ready. The director hopes to be done by the 15th of December. God is good all the time. We so much appreciated all the prayers as we served in His name.