St. Philip's Disaster Relief

02/24/2026

SPDR Milwaukee Rehab and Recon Trip

DAY 1 - MONDAY

Don, Kim, and Renee from the Twin Cities, John from Grand Rapids, MI, and Ken and Marcell Nelson from Brookfield, WI were at the Wesley House in Milwaukee, WI at noon on Monday. The house used to be a campus ministry building and now will be used by UMCOR for offices and meeting rooms for the staff that will be helping those impacted by the August 2025 flooding.

After unloading all the tools and a quick lunch, the team got to work prepping the house for the carpet tiles and vinyl plank flooring that will be installed this week.

The old quarter-round trim was removed from the base of all the walls where the vinyl planking will be installed and the rooms were swept clean. Work was also done installing some decorative boards and shelves above the fireplace to cover up where an old 2X4” frame hung – probably used to mount a big screen TV.

As part of the reconnaissance for the spring trip in May, there are plans to meet with some of the people on the Long-Term Recovery Group and tour the church where the team possibly will be staying.

On this trip, the team is staying at Calvary Lutheran Church in Brookfield – which is Ken and Marcella’s church. Some members of the congregation provided dinner for us. The sleeping rooms are spacious and comfortable, and it looks like the lights will all be out long before the usual 10:30 lights out time. Long day!

12/17/2025

https://www.millerfuneralfridley.com/obituaries/michael-edwin-anderson

View Michael Edwin Anderson's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

10/11/2025

For our ministry team members who traveled to Waverly… McEwens, where this explosion took place is only 10 miles to the east of Waverly.

09/29/2025

Day 8 – Sunday - Dyersburg, TN trip
We’re home! We rolled into St. Philip’s shortly after 2:00 this afternoon. The 87th SPDR trip - to Dyersburg, TN – is complete.

We had 23 team members on this trip, from six different states – MN, WI, IL, MI, TN, and MO. We had one stick (first-timer) and four boomerangs (those that have come back on another weeklong trip.) We also passed down the 50th Trip Golden Boomerang to our fourth recipient. (see photos.)

And we passed a milestone of working over 40,000 hours helping to rebuild the homes and lives of those impacted by disasters. Thank you the team members from this trip, our partners in Tennessee, and our supporters that made this happen.

We had a good week and the journey continues…

09/28/2025

Day 8 – Saturday - Deyrsburg, TN trip
We got the trailers packed and the Reelfoot facility all cleaned up this morning and rolled out around 7:45. We were even ahead of schedule!

We stopped this afternoon at the World Bird Sanctuary on the west side of St. Louis. We walked the loop trail there where we were able to view aviaries housing protected birds.

We arrived in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa shortly after 6:00 PM, had our traditional meal from Pizza Ranch in the hotel’s breakfast room enjoying each other’s company. We’ll be on the road at 7:30 tomorrow morning and plan to be back at St. Philip’s around 2:30.

It didn’t rain – for the second day in a row – so it was a good day!

09/27/2025

Day 7 – Friday - Dyersburg, TN trip
No rain today!

Our team is down in size. All of those (except John) that didn’t travel to Dyersburg from Fridley left last night or this morning. Some of them had planned to leave early but due the possibility of having no work by early in the day they left earlier than planned.

The 16 remaining team members finished up the work that was left. The powerwashing was completed within a couple hours this morning. The front deck/ramp was completed and then a large landing area with paving blocks was added to the end of the step and ramp in the front. Another small lander was added at the back stairs. Both of the TWK Disaster Response tool trailers were cleaned and organized to help make it easier for future volunteers to use. Also the SPDR tools were gathered up and packed while the work was being done on the landing. This made the final packing of the trailers go smoothly. Dawn and Richard spent the day cleaning the kitchen at Reelfoot and getting all the SPDR supplies packed up.

The homeowner brought lunch for the team so we were able to spend some time with her learning about her family. She was thrilled to see everything that had been down. Marsha presented with a prayer shawl, a piece of artwork by Deb Grant, and a handmade wooden cross. There weren’t too many dry eyes when that happened.

We’ve have most of personal gear packed up and some of the cleaning completed here at Reelfoot. We’ll finish up the cleaning and then packed the trailers – hoping to be on the road at 8:00 AM.

We completed all the work we had planned to do this week and even a little more! That doesn’t happen very often. It was a good day!

09/26/2025

Day 6 – Thursday - Dyersburg, TN trip
We went all day with only a little drizzle. Prior to today, it had rained every day since we left home – sometimes really hard.

We wrapped up a few more jobs/tasks in addition to the trailer skirting yesterday. We are completely done with our work in the warehouse and the back deck and stairs on the mobile home.

A little more work is required on the ramp and we are now adding pavers at the end of the ramp to reach out to the driveway. We also took on some tasks at another location – a foodshelf in Dyersburg that is in partnership with Reelfoot Ministries and the nearby Methodist church. There we almost completed powerwashing of the front and back of the driveway gates and a small fence. We’ll easily finish that tomorrow. We also moved some foodshelf food to another part of the building. And we assembled a computer desk and some other office furniture.

Due to several of our team members leaving early, we held our traditional pizza party tonight instead of Friday evening. It was a little different this time. Since we are over 30 minutes away from the nearest pizza place, delivery was out of the question. We purchased pizzas from the WalMart deli, cooked them in the Reelfoot kitchen, gathered our chairs in the gravel driveway, and enjoyed the pizza and each other’s company until well after dark.

It was a good day!

09/25/2025

Day 5 – Wednesday - Dyersburg, TN trip
Today continued with the same work as yesterday.

After unloading another van of donations for the thrift store, the warehouse crew got to sorting and palletizing all the supplies in the warehouse. They identified each of the shelf areas and then started lifting pallets into place with lists of the contents of each. They accomplished a lot. A couple more pallets needed and the last of the boxes will be in place.

The crew skirting the trailer finished up their work (with a slight delay waiting for the last of the needed material.) They then joined the deck/ramp crew.

The deck/ramp crew and the back deck crew continued cutting lumber and putting the boards in place. They’ve accomplished so much and didn’t have to contend with any rain today! They will be close to finishing tomorrow.

We were entertained with guitar and song by team member, Al for much of the evening. And we celebrated the birthdays of two of our team members, Kim (today) and Richard (tomorrow)!
It was a good day.

09/24/2025

Day 4 – Tuesday - Dyersburg, TN trip
We had heavy rain this morning that delayed the trailer home crew, but not the warehouse crew. They started by helping a Reelfoot Rural Ministries unloaded a van stuffed with donations for the thrift store. (They’ll probably do some shopping there tomorrow and they might find some treasures.) After that, they finished up assembly the industrial shelving so now there are two rows of shelving running almost the length of the building and almost to the ceiling. They then moved to assembling ten metal and wood shelf units. These were much smaller and only weighed 80 pounds each. After that, they started filling the shelves with supplies from the warehouse. Things are looking very neat in there, with shelves just waiting for supplies to help in future disasters.

The trailer house crew had a bit of a rain delay. But the rain stopped and they were able to get to work on the back stairs, the deck/ramp, and the trailer skirting. All progressed nicely today despite the mud and some other setbacks. The owner stopped in for the second time and brought the team some snacks. Many of them got to chat with her.

And, as usual, the cooks made great meals today – way more than we need to eat. Most of us will not be losing any weight on this trip despite the amount of physical work we are doing.

It was another good day.

09/23/2025

Day 3 – Monday - Dyersburg, TN trip
We had heavy rain last night and more today, light enough to get us wet but not stop the outside projects. The outside projects were all at the same site. A new trailer home has been moved in and elevated for a grandmother and her two grandsons that she is raising. A small deck and stairs are needed on the back, a larger deck along with a handicap ramp are needed for the front, and the trailer needs to be skirted.

We started all three of these, with three separate crews. Lots of post holes were dug and most of those now have the posts cemented in place. Other framing has been started in the back and the front. The skirting needed a framework of 2x4’s staked into the dirt to attach the vinyl material to at the bottom and the top needed a strip nailed in place all around the trailer. Corner pieces were added to extend the existing corner material down to the ground. And some of the skirting was installed.

Our inside job consisted of assembling industrial shelving in a large warehouse that will be used by the TWK Disaster Response to house materials and supplies in preparation of future disasters. The shelf units are 8’ wide by 4’ deep and are 16’ feet tall. They are very heavy and required drilling holes in the concrete and installing four anchor screw in each upright piece. About 75% of the work was completed today.

Tomorrow will be a continuation of what was started today – hopefully, without any rain. It was a good day – for a Monday.

09/22/2025

Day 2 – Sunday - Dyersburg, TN Trip
We left Quincy at 7:30 this morning, heading south. We stopped for lunch at Lambert’s – Home of the Throwed. It was quite the experience. We caught quite a few rolls and dropped several. And ate an enormous amount of food. After that we drove in the rain for about a half hour and the rest of the drive was uneventful.

We arrived at Reelfoot Rural Ministries – our home for the week around 2:45 and started to get settled in. Several of us went to check out the jobsites to give us a better idea of what we will need to get started tomorrow.

In the meantime, the rest of the team members arrived (except one who will be here tomorrow morning.) We had dinner and our team meeting. Everyone shared their connection of how they got started with SPDR and many expressed thoughts, feelings, and stories that were new to many of us, made us laugh, tugged at our heartstrings, etc. It was a good day.

09/21/2025

Day 1 - Saturday -Dyersburg, TN trip.
After many, many changes to the number of team members on this trip, vehicles and passengers in each vehicle, and hotel reservations, 15 of the 24 team members left St. Philip’s at 8:00 AM on the first day of SPDR's 87th trip.

The drive was smooth with only some light rain in Iowa. We made good time and arrived at our hotel in Quincy, Illinois right on time.
After about an hour at the hotel, we headed to a local barbecue restaurant where we had an enjoyable dinner. We had our own little room with all of us at one long table. Lots of stories and laughter were shared. It was a good day.