I thank God for the opportunities I’ve had to serve with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), most recently last October in Monte Lake, B.C. What I experienced there is hard to put into words, but I will try. At that project, I had the privilege of...
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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...
Now that I’m back to my regular life at work and home in Ontario, I’ve had some time to reflect and look back on my time with MDS. It was a wonderful experience! Through strong and wise leadership, I gained so much while serving with Mennonite...
“I hope you like your new home.” That was one of the messages a child from the River of Life Community Church (Mennonite Brethren) in Blind Bay, B.C. wrote in a card for families being helped by Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in Monte Lake....
After his stroke, one of the things that made Abe Gotzke sad was not being able to volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) anymore. Or so he thought. Gotzke, 72, of Abbotsford, B.C. suffered the stroke in April. “We were driving up north to...
Anita Jacobsen knows she was lucky. When the White Rock Lake fire swept through Monte Lake, B.C. in July 2021, it spared the house she lives in with her husband, David Newcomb—one of the few in the rural community that wasn’t destroyed or damaged...
When the evacuation order came, Michelle Swanson thought to herself: “Wow—this is really happening!” Michelle, 21, who lives with her father, Ted, 60, in Arnold, didn’t expect the water to flood their home on that mid-November day in 2021....
Asleep on the second floor of their house in Arnold, B.C. Rebecca and Tom Johnstone didn’t know the flood had arrived. “We didn’t hear the siren,” said Johnstone, 55. “A neighbour came to the door and told us to get out.” Johnstone...
When the bridge across the Sumas drainage canal was washed away, Al and Dorothy Balzer knew they were in trouble. The older couple, who live on property beside the canal in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, had watched the water rise in mid-November 2021...
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