Led by a bagpiper, representatives from the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Ontario Unit and the Catholic Knights of Columbus were piped into a dedication ceremony on July 16 for a new addition on the home of Marc and Carole Jobin in Barry’s Bay,...
Paradise is full of twists and turns. Paradise, California, that is. To reach one of the new homes they are building, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers must navigate miles of canyon roads full of hairpin turns—without the security...
People come to Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) as volunteers in different ways—they hear about it at church, visit the MDS website, learn about it on social media, or are invited by a friend. For Rudy Martens of Vancouver, it was because of a...
“Thank God they’re here.” That’s what Shirley Zeno said as she looked at Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers building her a brand-new home in Welsh, Louisiana. Zeno has been waiting a long time to move in with her four...
It’s the things she lost to the fire that still hits hard for Michelle Maisonneuve. “I keep remembering all the things I lost, the things I thought I’d keep the rest of my life, my books and photos,” she said of what the 2021 wildfire in...
Out with the old, in with the new! People in the Goshen, Indiana region are invited to join Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers as they do some demolition work at Goshen College. in response to a growing demand for nurses, the college...
For Joanne Caldwell, Vice-President of the Westwold, B.C. Community Hall, there was no question about letting Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) use the hall for free as its hub of operations for house building in nearby Monte Lake. “It’s amazing...
Each morning, when Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers head out to job sites in Monte Lake, B.C., Helmut Hein of Abbotsford, B.C. feels a pang. “I always wish I could be going with them,” said the long-time MDS volunteer, now serving as a...
Dustan Eager was home alone when the knock on the door came at 2 a.m. It was August 4, 2021 and someone from emergency services was there, telling him to get ready to leave his home in Monte Lake, B.C. because of the encroaching fire. His wife, Tammy...
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