As John Nice drove volunteers to and from the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) job sites in Elk, Washington, he safely navigated snow, ice, and freezing temperatures—and he enjoyed it all. After retiring as a semi-truck driver in 2022, he has been...
Rollin Ulrich just celebrated a year of service. For him, that means 52 weeks on the job with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS)—weeks that have been split into one- or two-month stints as an MDS project director. An MDS project director is...
Fifty hours on a train—and nearly the same number of hours per week volunteering for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS)! Twenty-year-old Jolene Hoover, from a Mennonite community in the Finger Lakes region of New York, rode the train with other...
Knoty knew the fire was coming. The wolf was frantically pacing, using his own language to warn his humans, Native Carpino and Bill Zimmerle at their home in Elk, Washington. He leaped into their truck, and Carpino and Zimmerle finally followed,...
Forty-seven new homes and counting. In a community that has suffered from wildfires since 2014, with the most recent in 2020, long-term recovery has been quietly progressing. MDS is a vital part of volunteer efforts that have kept hope alive for...
After volunteering for a week in Okanogan, Washington, Curt Dorsing vowed to go back and finish the job just as soon as he can. Visiting with one resident, Christy, after putting siding on her new house, Dorsing got to witness her reaction when she...
“Having a good time together and doing God’s work,” is how 35-year-old Kelcie Dorsing Brewer described her recent week of volunteering for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in Okanogan, Washington. She’s planning to go back and, given the...
Wildfire survivors in Okanogan, Washington and Paradise, California—some of them living in sheds, some in cars—need homes. Can Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers finish the homes they’ve started? Some of these survivors have been...
When a wildfire raged too close, James McCraigie tried to grab his three dogs and get out. He managed to take two—He-man and Bobby—as his third dog, Teala, hid under McCraigie’s mobile home. “I just kept my fingers crossed it was going to...
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