The story of a week at a disaster rebuilding project.
By Dwight Butterbaugh

This fall, I received a letter asking for help at the Disaster Response project at Hallam, Neb., which a tornado hit in May 2004. Disaster Response is a program of the General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries. The town of Hallam had 170 homes, and only seven were repairable.

The Nov. 14-20 dates fit my schedule and my next thought was of my two brothers, Dean and Duane Butterbaugh, members of Dixon (Ill.) Church of the Brethren. Their answers were "yes," so I knew I had the start of a crew.

We three brothers had never worked on a Disaster Response project together, but all had experience in building and each had served before in disaster work. I next recruited three people from my church: Earl Miller, a retired plumber, and Harold and Carla Goeking, who were interested because Hallam was the area where Harold was raised and his aunt lived near there. There were now six people lined up ready to go, and we received our instructions.

Lincoln, Neb., was our destination as we left on Sunday morning Nov. 14. We were to be housed and fed at Lincoln Church of the Brethren. Six of us used the church annex for sleeping, and it worked out very well with its one bathroom and a 12-gallon hot water heater. Our very good meals were in the church basement. Ken and Lou Ella Imhoff were project coordinators for the week, and Lou Ella was responsible for the good meals. The Mount Morris church had collected $90 for us to take the project coordinators out to eat. We decided Lou Ella's meals were so good, we would donate that money to the Emergency Disaster Fund.

There were two crews working that week, and crews had been at the site since September. We were the second crew from Illinois/Wisconsin District. The house the five of us worked on was for a family of five. We hung sheet rock and taped, and did other small jobs. When I used to build houses as my profession, I hired that work done for me! The family was trying for their third house after being burned out once, then having their house leveled by the tornado.

The Goekings said it was the best "vacation" they ever had. Earl Miller has since become interested in working further in disaster relief. I will remember this experience because we brothers--Dean, Duane, and I--shared a week of fellowship and getting to know the family we were building for. We refused mileage money, and our pay was a feeling of a job well done, memories, and safe travel.

--Dwight Butterbaugh is the Disaster Response contact person at Mt. Morris (Ill.) Church of the Brethren.

Source: 2/16/2005 Newsline
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