It took many hands and many hearts to build the Compassion House. The single family home, property of the Lancaster (Pa.) Brethren in Christ Church, is the fruitful result of a partnership between Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), Mennonite Central...
Dodie Lepp was 12 years old when a series of tornadoes touched down near her family’s home in Goshen, Indiana. It was her first experience with a disaster. “It was Palm Sunday, and I’ll never forget it,” she recalled. “It was just...
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,...
What’s Evelyn Peters-Rojas been up to? She retired in April 2021 after 15 years with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada, mostly in the area of volunteer coordination, but she hasn’t retired from volunteering! She does miss the people,...
SALISBURY – Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) have announced “Bridging Together,” a partnership to build bridges in hurricane-ravaged western North Carolina so that people can come home and thrive in...
After devastating fires in Maui, Hawaii, there is hope—in the form of Ohana Hope Village. Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers arrived on October 7, 2024, working to build what’s called “midlevel” housing for fire survivors. An...
When Burton Friesen agreed to accompany Benny Penner on a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) home visit, he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. Penner, the Atlantic Canada Unit Chair, was responding to a call for help from Truro, Nova...
It’s “back to school” time. After retiring as finance manager for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) several months ago, Glenn Hillard is thinking about “going back to school”—to MDS leadership training, that is! “My wife and I are...
From red doors to purple walls, from a galley kitchen to a more open design, disaster survivors have had an increasingly important influence on options for MDS-built homes. When MDS project directors sit down to talk with a disaster survivor...
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