As they climbed a 205-step wooden trail staircase on Mackinaw Island, Twila and Leonard Hochstedler talked about why they love the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) RV Program. The both have a sense of adventure. From Kalona, Iowa, the couple has been...
Robert Pitka thinks of MDS volunteers as good workers—and good listeners, too. The tribal administrator for Toksook Bay, home to about 700 people in western Alaska, Pitka recalled when the tribal council first considered inviting MDS to help repair...
As Hurricane Katrina approached, Blanca Mackay and her husband, Mario, left New Orleans for Houston, Texas. “We took one of our cars and followed our son and his wife,” Blanca remembered. “We stayed in Houston almost a month. Everything in New...
David Harms lived in Houston, Texas, during his first year after college, working in investment banking. From Houston he watched Katrina bear down in the Gulf. “A few years before Katrina,” David said, “I met a Tulane student who told me...
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Reynold Friesen to be its next Executive Director. Friesen, who is currently the Director of Alumni, Church, and Donor Relations at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU...
For over 40 years, the Poplar Park Hall was the centre of community life in rural Libau, Manitoba. When it no longer met the community’s needs, it was sold to Jeff and Sylvia Starr. For the Starrs, who have been living in Winnipeg, it was a great...
We are excited to introduce a new volunteer scheduling software called Kinection. Kinection will provide an intuitive experience and a simple process for volunteers to sign up to serve on MDS projects. “Kinection was designed with the goal of...
Two new yearlong volunteers—Simon Martin, 20, from Chugiak, Alaska and Lukas Houben, 19, from Dusseldorf, Germany—and returning yearlong volunteer Mary Joyce Wise, 28, from Auburn, New York, are starting their year of service by spending a month...
Sometimes, Alicia Hertzler looks back at her journal entries from 2005, when she helped Hurricane Katrina survivors. Today we toured New Orleans and some parts of it are just ruined. There are piles of debris outside every house and some of the...
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