A story by JOSH WOOD Associated Press including Jim and Kathie Konsor, Bakken Oil Rush Ministry is reaching far and wide. Over 75 news venues online and in print have featured the story. The Bakken Oil Rush Ministry logo which features the traditional Methodist cross and flame wrapped into a fire that resembles the gas flares that burn across the oil region in North Dakota.
By JOSH WOOD Associated Press
WILLISTON, NORTH DAKOTA -- Jim Konsor first came here two years ago as part of that transient society when a friend found him a job digging scoria, a pumice-like rock used to build roads and drilling pads. Living in a trailer in Watford City, an hour's drive south of Williston, he made a daily trek to the town's water tower to catch a cellphone signal to call his wife.
That's how Konsor saw the other side of the boom: People who had moved to the oil patch hoping for a new start, only to find themselves dragged deeper into hardship in a boom economy where big paychecks can be swallowed fast by the high cost of living, like apartments that run $2,000 a month.
Today, he and his wife, Kathie, head the Bakken Oil Rush Ministry, named after the formation that lies beneath northwestern North Dakota. The group's logo, emblazoned on a 29-foot camper they use to distribute clothes, blankets and household items to the disadvantaged, takes the traditional Methodist cross and flame and warps it into a fire intended to resemble the gas flares that burn across oil country.