In summer 2024, John Henry and Judith Yoder of Lakeville, Ohio lost their home in a house fire. The family contacted Gid Yoder from Disaster Aid Ohio asking if they might consider building a house for someone who did not attend church. Gid provided...
Eldon King was 25 years old when he first heard about Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). Now the resident of Orrville, Ohio, who is almost 100, is still dedicated to MDS and, most of all, to serving others in the ways he can. When it comes to service...
The fire destroyed our home on November 17, 2024,” Aleeshia Haskell said. “Only three years after we bought the place. That house was a catastrophe when we got it. We completely rebuilt it. We did the work. I did the plumbing, and my husband did...
Ms. Maura couldn’t see who was working on her new home in Hargill, Texas—but she could hear the sounds of hope. With fading vision caused by diabetes, she took her husband’s arm as they stood in front of their home, simply smiling together...
The sixth grader tightened the grip on her purse as I approached. The purse was made of pink overlapping sequins. At its top, a unicorn’s horn emerged. A strap secured it around her neck. Amongst this group of older white men, it provided...
Photo by Joanne Murray. * By Joanne Murray “Our roof was blown off as we huddled in the corner of our porch from six in the morning until nine at night. Nothing like this had ever happened to us before.” That’s how Shirley Kent vividly...
After living in her new home for two months, Willie Green still likes to walk up and and down the hallway. “Never in my life have I had a hallway to walk down,” she says. “I’ve never lived in a house big enough to have a hallway.” Her house...
Two homes in the mountains of West Virginia are nearly ready for occupancy, four years after floodwaters decimated communities and upended lives there. MDS volunteers built the 1,000-foot modular homes by working inside a warehouse tucked in the...
There’s a job card is on its way to Strasburg, Ohio, signed by a flood survivor from West Virginia, about to give the official “go-ahead” for a creative MDS response that will occur safely even amid the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a tall...
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