It’s been four long years since Christine Harper saw the 2020 CZU lightning fire take her 80-year-old home, plus her greenhouse and hay barn on the 20-acre organic farm she and her husband had created in the Santa Cruz mountains. Recently widowed,...
The hummingbirds are coming back. So are the deer: a doe with twin fawns has been grazing close to Christy Allen’s new house, built by MDS volunteers. From her deck—constructed with a ramp since she uses a walker—Allen overlooks Cameron...
By Lois Wenger Brothers don’t always think or act alike. But two Visser brothers have a good thing going. Isaac, 17, and Ezekiel, 15, are getting some MDS experiences under their belts. Tool belts, that is. Isaac had his first stint...
By Don and Rachel Horst On May 9, we were invited to the Paradise Town Council meeting to receive a proclamation from Mayor Greg Bolin. Receiving a proclamation sounded rather official. It called to mind things like presidents do for...
When students from Columbia Bible College (CBC) in Abbotsford, B.C. signed up to volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in Paradise, California in mid-February, they were anticipating sun and temperatures in the mid-teens Celsius (high 50s...
A new warehouse in Kingsburg, California, will help MDS streamline its flow of equipment and tools for volunteers. A groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 14 kicked off construction of the 7,200-foot warehouse, which will be complete by spring of 2023...
What does Mennonite Disaster Service have in common with the orthodontist? On the surface, it might seem like nothing; but Isaac Visser, 16, from Port Henry, New York has shown that there is truly a connection between the two. Isaac spent two...
They barely got out. It was 6:15 a.m. that November day in 2018 when Teri and John Rubiolo noticed a spot fire visible from their house, nestled on 10 acres in the scenic canyon of Concow, California. “I called 911 and they said, ‘get...
It’s a marriage made in Paradise—or at least an anniversary made there. Dottie and Tim Weber celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary in a unique way: cooking for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers in Paradise, California as MDS...
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