Eldon King, 99-and-a-half, reflects on life-giving service

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, age doesn’t matter to him. “Children and old people usually throw the ‘half’ in there—so I’m 99-and-a-half years old,” he said.

“My first involvement with MDS was as a pastor living in West Liberty, Ohio and the tornado went through Xenia, Ohio,” King recalled. “That was close enough that I could drive to it for a day.”

King is the brother-in-law of the late Nelson Hostetter, the first full-time executive coordinator for Mennonite Disaster Service. King chaired the MDS Board for several years and, during that time, was on the search committee when former MDS Executive Director Tom Smucker and current MDS Executive Director, U.S., Kevin King were hired.

MDS has changed vastly, Eldon King acknowledged, remembering the days when volunteers responded with far less equipment than they have now.

“The tool trailers, the shower trailers, the new office—all those things had to come if MDS was going to grow,” he said. “All we really had in the early days were vans.”

Now he closely follows MDS, avidly reading the “On the Level” e-newsletter and reading “Behind the Hammer” cover-to-cover. “This helps me keep up with something I’ve learned to love and appreciate,” he said. “MDS was one of the most meaningful parts of my ministry. Putting shoe leather to work and Matthew 20:25 really came alive. That service was life-giving.”

He currently volunteers at his local Mennonite Central Committee thrift store, where one of his jobs is call the silent auction winners each week to tell them the good news.

At the thrift store, he also helps make rugs. “One of the things they do there, is make rugs out of denim and other used materials,” he said. “I tell people I’m part of the rug manufacturing department.”