“We came as strangers. We leave as friends.” That’s what project director Peter Thiessen said at the October 2 closing celebration of the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) project in Grand Forks, B.C. Before the flood, he said, Grand Forks was...
For Jan Joyce, serving as a volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is like being part of a military operation. And Joyce, 62, should know—she spent 20 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Driving in the hills above the town, she counts...
Zachary Bartel wants to be a communicator one day—he wants to tell stories. But first, there are some potatoes to peel for hungry Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers in Grand Forks, B.C. Bartel, 19, is a second-year student at Canadian...
Unlike other Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers who came to Grand Forks, B.C. in early June, Sheila and Mike Davis didn’t have to travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres to be of service. The retired couple live in nearby Trail,...
“I never thought God cared about me, but then MDS showed up.” That’s what a homeowner in Grand Forks, B.C. told Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteer Eli Klassen. The comment was moving for the 20-year-old Steinbach, Man. Bible College...
Retirees Susan and Peter Thiessen call it their “Mennonite Disaster Service retirement plan.” “Being retired and doing MDS is wonderful,” says Peter, 65, who is co-coordinator of the project in Grand Forks, B.C. with Susan, 64. “We get to...
“You’d make a great MDSer.” That’s what a long-time Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteer told Robert Prinse, a self-employed carpenter from Chilliwack, B.C. That was in 2001. It took Prinse, 56, until 2014 to follow through on the...
Brian Marten of Pincher Creek, Alberta, wasn’t planning on doing service in Grand Forks, B.C. with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). But his friend Jim Dyck was going, and he invited him to come along. So he did. “Jim suggested I should come,...
What do you get when you put four retired in teachers in a pick-up truck and head out to do service with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS)? A road trip! That’s what Peter Bartel, 81, Frank Reimer, 79, Ernie Ewert, 70, and Peter Andres, 74, did in...
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