MDS launches online scheduling system
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) has launched a new online scheduling system for volunteers. Anyone interested in serving with the Anabaptist disaster response organization during the fall season (September through December) can register at mds.volunteermatrix.com and then submit a request to serve. “A greater number of weekly volunteers are needed this fall to respond to storm, flood and…
Building relationships with residential school survivors
“It’s personal, there are names and faces. It’s not just textbook information now.” That’s how Timothy Khoo, 16, describes what it was like to meet residential school survivors while volunteering with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford in July. Khoo was one of 13 youth and leaders from…
Hurricane Dorian: MDS is “ready to respond”
As Americans follow updates about Hurricane Dorian, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada is keeping an eye on the storm, too. The organization, which rebuilds and repairs homes destroyed or damaged by natural disasters in the U.S. and Canada, is “ready to respond” when the storm is over says Ross Penner, executive director of MDS Canada.…
Watch: ‘Gettin’ it done’ with MDS
The folks who volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service are “gettin’ it done.” We recently published a photo essay featuring Canadian Mennonites who are volunteering with MDS in Texas. Now, you can watch a short video that highlights the work of the Anabaptist disaster response organization. Last year, more than 5,400 volunteers from churches across Canada and the U.S.…
Canadian faces of MDS in Texas
What do you get when you put Mennonites from all over Canada, and from all sorts of different Mennonite conferences and churches—along with Christians from other denominations—in the same place? A Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) unit—that’s what. In February, I visited volunteers in three communities in Texas hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017—La Grange, Bloomington…
Mennonite organizations help Montreal church with renovations
Every night, from November to April, volunteers from Hochma Mennonite Church in Montreal open its doors as a warming centre for some 40 people who are experiencing homelessness. The church wants to become a licenced shelter operating year-round, but its building needs roughly $200,000 worth of renovations to bring it up to code. Brian Bauman,…
MDS volunteers build second cabin at Shekinah
Ike and Priscilla Epp aren’t quite sure how many people volunteered to help build the second timber-frame cabin at Shekinah Retreat Centre, but they know there were many. The project took place during the month of August at the Mennonite Church Saskatchewan-owned camp north of Waldheim, and was designated a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Family…
MDS Canada moves to new location
On June 15, 2018, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada hosted a dedication for their new office space located on the second floor of 600 Shaftesbury Blvd. at the Canadian Mennonite University campus, followed by a lunch and open house. MDS Canada decided to move to a bigger space when they added several staff to their…
