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...
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...
It’s the last day of school and Lauren Collins takes a moment to breathe before she picks up her three kids. She’s in her place of peace—her new home, built by volunteers from Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). “Everything is so simple,”...
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and Disaster Aid Ohio, in partnership with the Coastal Bend Disaster Recovery Group dedicated the last 13 homes in the Tierra de Esperanza, or “Land of Hope,” community in Woodsboro, Texas, on May 20, bringing to...
When Jean Anderson read in a Brethren Church newsletter that Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and the Brethren Church had formalized a working agreement together, she could not have been more excited. “Serving with MDS is the perfect place for the...
As MDS closed its Hurricane Harvey response in communities throughout the coastal bend of Texas, the last ten homes were dedicated in the Tierra de Esperanza, or “Land of Hope,” Project in Woodsboro. On May 20, MDS volunteers joined...
Patient. Grateful. Welcoming. That’s how Orlin Martens, a plumber from Inman, Kan., described the families he helped in Bastrop, Tex. in mid-March as a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteer. Those families had been without water for more than...
MDS volunteer Doug Casey shares a smile with resident of Bastrop, Texas, after restoring water in his home. On the last day of their weeklong volunteer service in Bastrop, Texas, Jim Ensz and Doug Casey were helping a woman with disabilities who...
Sharon Taylor is home. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, despite Hurricane Harvey, despite a disability that causes her back to hurt, despite losing all but two of her beloved seven pets. “I guess it’s true that what doesn’t kill you makes you...
During this time of pandemic, MDS’s projects are all shut down until it is safe to resume work. Until that time, we are re-publishing stories of recovery and restoration from the past—stories that remind of us there’s hope, even in the most...
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