Roman Heuft was more than 5,000 kilometres/3,100 miles away when his community, Blind Bay, British Columbia, received a wildfire evacuation order last August. “[The news] was pretty devastating,” said Heuft, who was serving as coordinator to...
Ted Edbom came to know the North Shuswap area, British Columbia, over several decades as a Wonder Bread franchisee and Frito-Lay delivery driver. He recounts many faces, names and personalities, describing the community as close-knit, “really,...
A swarm of butterflies welcomed Isabelle Labelle to a lush, mountainside property in Celista, British Columbia, four years ago. “It was dreamy,” Labelle mused. With a south slope, a water source and good soil, it was just what she and her husband...
Every morning on his way to work, contractor Ken Hollinger passed a black space. He knew two area homes recently burned. Between cancer treatments and work, however, there was never enough time. Besides, he and Suetta, his wife, had a spring...
“It was eerily quiet.” Lytton, British Columbia, villagers moved as if in slow motion while the temperature climbed to a Canadian record high of 49.6 C/121.3 F. There was hardly an insect or bird in sight. And no wind. That’s what Owen Collings...
Nine-year-old Owen Nichols cut the ribbon on a new bridge in Iron Station, North Carolina on June 29, officially dedicating the state’s first bridge built by Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers, who spent about eight days working on the...
MDS is widely known as a disaster relief organization that is there for communities over the long haul. The organization’s response in Lytton, British Columbia, is a prime example. The village of approximately 250 people was flattened by an extreme...
“Things like this don’t happen to me,” said Wayne Roden, 66, with the frame of his new house and hum of a volunteer team in the background. Roden lost his home to the Bush Creek East Wildfire in August of last year. A resident of Scotch Creek,...
Three hundred people gathered on June 9 in Goessel, Kansas to celebrate the dedication of the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) cabinet shop and a new warehouse for storing materials. They toured the site, and many of them also experienced a...
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