McKenzie County ND

What a good time we had! Good Shepherd Home invited me and my wife to what turned out to be a marvelous celebration. All year long volunteers–both pastors and lay people–provide daily chapel services for the Home’s residents and for the residents of the Horizon assisted living center. In recognition of such commitment, the McKenzie County Health Care System invites those volunteers to have a Christmas party with the residents.

This year’s event saw us gathering on Thursday, December 6th, for a marvelous roast beef supper, a gracious welcome by CEO Dan Kelly, the singing of Christmas carols, and the receiving of gifts. But by far the best part of the evening was sharing the joy of the season with our fellow volunteers and the Home’s residents in delightful conversation and fellowship.

Many members of the McKenzie County Ministerial Association (MCMA) were among those gathered. Alton Hillesland, a pastor emeritus of the county, lead the group in prayer. “Twenty-two years I’ve been attending these parties,” he announced after the prayer. Many other volunteer preachers joined the MCMA for a very festive night.

Katie Paulson, SADD director for teens in Watford City, introduced Lee Erickson, second from left in photo, the North Dakota SADD coordinator and Mark LoMurray, the contractor and trainer from the North Dakota Mental Health Association, to 16 members of the Community Coalition on Nov. 26, 2007.

Katie, on the far right in the photo, is working with Region 1 Prevention Program Director Karen McDaniel, standing in photo, to plan events for youth to be trained as gatekeepers in suicide prevention, in addition to organizing an underage drinking prevention forum for this spring.

“We have a pretty strong network of youth across the state in SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions, to help with the suicide issue,” states Katie.

Mark said he was excited to partner up with SADD and train them, using his 10 years experience in Suicide prevention work.

The students of SADD will be involved in Youth Safe Coalitions who will be doing an assessment that will provide youth leadership in the evolving effort. College level students will be included, according to Lee.

In other business, the Horizons program steering committee announced its vision and planning session, with intentions of meeting the Nov. 30 deadline. Watford City Police Officer Troy White Owl suggested that good communication was the biggest obstacle in the recent drug search done at Watford City High School. Overall, the Drug Search went well and most comments have been positive. More will be done in the future. Most necessary is the community cooperation, according to Troy, or else the searches will not occur.