More than 1,000 Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers, donors and partners traveled from across the U.S. and Canada for an Annual Celebration on Feb. 10-11, held at The Worship Center in Lancaster, Pa. Exploring the theme “The Joy of Serving...
John Zuck knows something about transformation. After he and his wife, Connie, had less than two minutes to leave their home in northern Pennsylvania during a flash flood in August 2021, they came back to find the water had all but washed out the...
By John Sawatzky When Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) begins a response, we always understand that the homeowners may want to talk about their trauma. That’s what happened in Monte Lake, B.C. in 2022 when MDS responded to the White Rock Lake fire...
Eastern Kentucky is no stranger to floods. I used to live there and survived some myself. So what happened in July of 2022 that made it so much worse than anyone had ever experienced? Several things: The water rose at night. The water rose fast...
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in Texas has a new sense of unity: after previously being split into a few separate units, the statewide structure provides better communication across and between MDS responses. Immediate past chair Wayne...
Standing in the kitchen in her new home built by MDS volunteers, Sheila Hickman is planning some major Christmas baking. “I will celebrate Christmas in my house, and I’ve always cooked,” she said. “There’s some things they just want Mom to...
Nick Hamm is a long-time volunteer with MDS and former Chair of the MDS Canada Ontario Unit. He played a key role in leading and organizing the response to Hurricane Fiona in Nova Scotia. Now that MDS’s work in Nova Scotia is complete this year, he...
Ten weeks, 179 tree clean-up jobs and 28 roof repair or rebuild jobs. That’s what 133 MDS Canada volunteers did this fall in Antigonish and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in response to Hurricane Fiona. The hurricane struck the province September 24,...
At Christmastime, Sara Frey thinks volunteering is the best gift of all. As she was decorating for Christmas at her winter home in Sarasota, Florida, the 88-year-old took a few minutes to reflect on what 25 years of volunteering for MDS has...
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