April 17, 2024

Hi Jesse,

I could feel things building in January. Canadian response plans were starting to take shape and by February I had a clearer picture of the response season ahead for 2024 — Lytton, B.C., Shuswap, B.C., and Fraser Lake Family Project in Ontario.

I made a spreadsheet for leadership volunteers. It was full of empty spaces, and I wondered how all the spots would fill. Yes, I knew some volunteers were available but finding opportunities that fit volunteer availability isn’t always easy, and I knew we would need a lot of volunteers.

The conversations began. The calls started. The emails and texts went back and forth. Some of those conversations are still continuing!

In the thick of the planning season, there are times when I feel overwhelmed, partly because of the number of volunteers I am communicating with and the many details I’m tracking. But mostly I find it overwhelmingly amazing that this frenzied willingness to serve is all about sharing God’s love. It’s about people expressing their faith through an eagerness to serve with MDS, restoring hope to those recovering from disasters.

It reminds me of Ephesians 3:17-19, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (NRSV)

May God bless each of you who will serve this summer, and those of you who are not able to serve, and may God make you a blessing as you share the unmeasurable love of Christ wherever you are and with whomever you meet.

There are still a few crew leader opportunities in Shuswap and Fraser Lake Family Project, and cook opportunities in Lytton and Fraser Lake Family Project. If you are interested in serving as a weekly volunteer at the Fraser Lake Family Project (all ages welcome), there are openings there too. Please let us know if you are available!

With gratitude,

Rose Klassen

Volunteer Manager, MDS Canada

Work and play at summer family projects

An eight-year-old kneels, with battery-operated drill in hand, over a sheet of plywood. He knows what to do.

It’s a familiar scene at Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Family Projects. It’s amazing what young people can accomplish with the instruction and tools, said Nick Hamm.

Hamm is serving as the Project Coordinator for MDS Canada’s 2024 Family Project at Fraser Lake Camp in Bancroft, Ontario this July.

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Spirit of MDS Fund supports local ministry

Every year the Gospel Mission Church, an Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference (EMMC) congregation in Winkler, Manitoba, runs an event called Love the Valley.

There are many components to the event such as hot dog lunches and yard work for low-income homeowners. But one of the most impactful has been handing out hampers of household essentials like cleaning supplies, toilet paper and paper towels.

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As beloved Louisiana project closes,

hearts stay wide open

The wall of signatures and blessings. Freida Platt’s cooking. Meals, jokes, and prayers with Pastor Roy Platt, at the Jennings Church of Christ. All the ways the church and the whole community of Jennings, Louisiana, opened their hearts to MDS volunteers.

And the volunteers came: 1,044 of them served in Jennings, for a collective 11,068 days spent restoring hope to 136 households. They helped the community recover from hurricanes Laura and Delta, which struck in 2020, and an ice storm that came after that.

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