MDS celebrates 75 years: “a heart for service, a vision for action”

More than 500 people gathered in-person and online on Feb. 14-15, 2025, at the Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS).

The celebration honored the past seven-and-a-half decades, and also looked ahead to a year during which MDS will have an unprecedented number of responses across the U.S. and Canada.

As she opened the celebration, Lana Tieszen, MDS Region 3 Vice chair and a member of the MDS National Board of Delegates, expressed deep gratitude. “Tonight we’ll celebrate tens of thousands of MDS volunteers,” she said. “Think of the passion of that initial small group of men and women who had a heart for service and a vision for action.”

A highlight of the celebration was music offered by the Tabor, Bethel & Hesston Joint Choir, and a special anniversary hymn written by Dr Benjamin Bergey.

MDS’s partners—including the Brethren Church, Church World Service, Catholic Charities, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, United Methodist Committee on Relief, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency—shared greetings for the special anniversary.

Addressing the celebration, MDS Executive Director for the U.S. Kevin King asked those gathered to pass along a message that the MDS movement is alive and well. “Our volunteers are salt and light,” he said. “Lives are being changed. Hope is being restored – not only for the 135 homeowners last year who got new homes, not only for the 287 repairs that were finished, not only for the owners of nine bridges, but for the 6,486 volunteers as well.”

Ross Penner, MDS Executive Director for Canada, reflected that, if a cause is compelling enough, it can draw together groups of people who don’t usually work together. “We have learned that great things can be done when we work together,” he said. “We have a huge challenge ahead of us as a warmer climate continues to generate more severe weather events.”

The celebration also included prayers, many of them written or compiled by Evelyn Peters-Rojas. As Peters-Rojas said, when MDS volunteers work, they often pray: “May our hammers, paint brushes, and saws be the continual prayer to fill this home with love.”

Throughout the two-day event, volunteers shared stories of the lives that have been changed in many ways.

Jay Gilmore, chair of the Selma Long-Term Recovery Group in Alabama, where MDS will soon complete its fifth home, described how volunteers have earned the trust of the community.

“I just want to impress on you how grateful we are that you help us rebuild the social and spiritual bonds in Selma,” he said. “Ultimately you are helping to rebuild the Kingdom of God in our community.”