Venice, FL – SYP – June 29 – July 5, 2025

The Venice team this week included Mitch Kingsley (PD, Ohio), Val and Lynn Kipfer (head and assistant cook, Indiana), Stan Kauffman (OM, Michigan), Bruce Kindey (CL, Ohio), Ray Heisey (CL, Virginia), year-long volunteers Maik Hinz (Germany) and Mary Joyce Wise (New York).  Joining us this week was a group of twelve ladies from Wisconsin serving as weekly volunteers.

Ray finished one project from last week on Monday, with a dishwasher hook-up.  Three other projects are ongoing.  At Ana’s house, volunteers worked on hanging drywall through the whole house, ceilings and walls.  Mary continues living in her home as volunteers finished drywall, painted and began laying flooring.  George, a former drywall finisher himself, happily instructed MDS volunteers in his techniques and methods as they worked on hanging and mudding ceilings and walls in his home.

Gladys, whose home several volunteers worked on last week and Ray finished on Monday, joined us for the our evening meal on Wednesday and afterwards told us about her experiences sheltering in the hallway as a hurricane took the roof off her home.  That was nearly three years ago.  She lived in a FEMA trailer for two years while volunteers from three different church-related organizations worked on rebuilding her home.  MDS had the privilege of drawing to completion the work that others had begun, and Gladys is now, very appreciatively, back in her restored home.

In the evenings, our Wisconsin weekly crew and long-term volunteer Maik enjoyed volleyball at Venice beach, then singing and playing table games.  The ladies also led us in singing gospel hymns for our devotion time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings after breakfast.  Two large stuffed bears also somehow showed up for breakfast on Friday morning and accompanied the weekly volunteer group as they packed into the van Friday afternoon for the trip back to Wisconsin.  We all enjoyed and are grateful for this group’s patience, hard work, and fun-loving presence this week.

Sunday evening, July 6, sixteen volunteers from Canada, mostly Ontario, plan to join us in Venice for a week pushing forward on the MDS project homes already underway, and at least one more house is in the queue to begin soon.