MDS to start work in Lytton, B.C.
While Lytton, B.C., struggles to recover from a devastating fire that destroyed most of the small, remote village in June 2021, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) stands ready to help. Lytton has faced an array of challenges to rebuilding its town, including lack of local workers and government red tape. Two years after the disaster, Lytton…
Niagara church supports seasonal ag workers
The May 4 issue of Canadian Mennonite stated that “Niagara United Mennonite Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, will use a grant of $5,000 to build a laundry facility for seasonal workers who come to the area each year from Jamaica and Mexico to work on local farms.” The money is from the “Spirit of MDS Fund,”…
The church that builds together, stays together
With suitcases full of work clothes and spirits full of enthusiasm, 13 people from Mount Royal Mennonite Church in Saskatoon traveled to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The group served together on the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) project to rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Fiona in 2022. They were there from May 21 to 27.…
Cape Breton church hosts disaster responders
“Everyone is excited—there’s a buzz in the air.” That’s what Dana Feltmate, the minister at Sydney River Protestant United Church in Sydney, Nova Scotia, said about hosting the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) response to Hurricane Fiona in Cape Breton. “Hosting MDS is another way for us to do our mission,” he said of the church,…
MDS Canada returning to Cape Breton
Although thousands of fallen trees were cleaned up by Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers after Hurricane Fiona struck the Maritimes last fall, and some roofs were patched or tarped, the organization was unable to do more before winter came. Many live in what are called “company homes,” houses built many years ago by coal companies…
Volunteers respond to Hurricane Fiona
As hurricanes go, Fiona wasn’t as bad as some when it hit Atlantic Canada—just lots of trees blown down into yards, and shingles and siding blown off houses. Unless it was your tree, your yard or your roof and siding. Then it was a very big deal. That’s how Nick Hamm sees it. “It’s amazing…
MDS volunteers begin cleanup in Nova Scotia
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada began cleanup work in Antigonish, N.S., on Sept. 30 in response to Hurricane Fiona. That’s when volunteers from the Bethel Mennonite Church in Waterville, N.S., about a three-and-a-half hour drive from Antigonish, arrived to start cutting down fallen trees in the coastal town of 4,300 in the northeast part of…
Kentucky flood survivors need help: MDS
Flood survivors in hard-hit eastern Kentucky need volunteers—and Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is trying to help. “The need is overwhelming,” said Larry Stoner, MDS regional operations coordinator, describing the aftermath of the historic deluge in late July that killed 38 people in a rural corner of the state. Only one percent of properties in the…
‘I can be a mom again’
Dustan Eager was home alone when the knock on the door came at 2 a.m. It was Aug. 4, 2021, and someone from emergency services was there, telling him to get ready to leave his home in Monte Lake, B.C. because of the encroaching fire. His wife Tammy, and their three children—Tristan 10, Sarah…
MDS provides meals, camps, blankets and more
Meals and blankets for homeless people, helping low-income kids go to camp, support for refugees—these are some of the ways the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada Spirit of MDS Fund helped Canadian congregations and organizations serve their communities. Altogether, $117,900 has been granted to 26 groups since last September through the fund, which exists to…
