By Elaine Maust David Harms lived in Houston, Texas, during his first year after college, working in investment banking. From Houston he watched Katrina bear down in the Gulf. “A few years before Katrina,” David said, “I met a Tulane...
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Reynold Friesen to be its next Executive Director. Friesen, who is currently the Director of Alumni, Church, and Donor Relations at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU...
For over 40 years, the Poplar Park Hall was the centre of community life in rural Libau, Manitoba. When it no longer met the community’s needs, it was sold to Jeff and Sylvia Starr. For the Starrs, who have been living in Winnipeg, it was a great...
A reunion of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) RV volunteers kicked off on September 8 at the Mill Creek Campground in Mackinaw City, Michigan, drawing more than 30 volunteers from the U.S. and Canada. Jim and Annette Martens made the 15-hour...
We are excited to introduce a new volunteer scheduling software called Kinection. Kinection will provide an intuitive experience and a simple process for volunteers to sign up to serve on MDS projects. “Kinection was designed with the goal of...
Two new yearlong volunteers—Simon Martin, 20, from Chugiak, Alaska and Lukas Houben, 19, from Dusseldorf, Germany—and returning yearlong volunteer Mary Joyce Wise, 28, from Auburn, New York, are starting their year of service by spending a month...
Sometimes, Alicia Hertzler looks back at her journal entries from 2005, when she helped Hurricane Katrina survivors. Today we toured New Orleans and some parts of it are just ruined. There are piles of debris outside every house and some of the...
On Dec. 10, 2021, Mayfield, Kentucky, became known for a tornado that killed 24 people, destroyed every municipal building, and devastated the city, home to 10,000. Three-and-a-half years later, Mayfield is known for the compassion, born out of pain...
Katie Shirk Snyder Katie Shirk Snyder, from Goshen, Indiana, shared an encounter that happened just a few weeks ago—a time when she was having, well, a not-so-good week on the MDS site as a crew leader. “There was a lot of down time,...
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