The sixth grader tightened the grip on her purse as I approached. The purse was made of pink overlapping sequins. At its top, a unicorn’s horn emerged. A strap secured it around her neck. Amongst this group of older white men, it provided...
“Being able to be a part of something of this magnitude was the best ministry experience I’ve had so far.” That’s what Tim Whitten, who served as Hurricane Florence Recovery director for the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist...
When volunteer fire chief Trent Roberts pulled up to the home of Diane and Reginald Rice in Triton, Newfoundland, on that mid-July day last summer, his heart sank. “The fire was pretty much out by then, the boys had attacked it hard,” said...
The U.S. border is opening! That is news Kelsey Friesen, Volunteer Manager for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada, has waited a long time to hear. The border between the U.S. and Canada closed to non-essential travel in March 2020 due to the...
The year 2021 marks 20 years since terrorists took 2,996 lives in attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The following brings back some memories of the ways in which Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) responded. “How to get people in...
Growing up in a farm family, Randy Short spent a week serving with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in Kentucky after his senior year of high school. After that, he served with MDS each winter for three or four months. “After we were married, it...
Michael Bering paused in the shade on his back patio in LaPlace, Louisiana, chatting for a few minutes with his brother, Edward, who has come by to lend him some moral support as he copes with the havoc Hurricane Ida wreaked on his home. Michael’s...
Sixty-seven-year-old Pamela Haskin was sweeping, cleaning, and sweating up a storm inside a hurricane-damaged home in LaPlace, Louisiana. She’d traveled from her home in western Pennsylvania several days before, but still seemed a little surprised...
For Bradley and Virginia Walker, livestock farmers in Endeavour, Saskatchewan, this year’s weather was a disaster. “The rain was so patchy,” said Bradley. “Some places got good rain, we got nothing.” The lack of rain meant they couldn’t...
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