Greetings!
This morning I opened up the six-page activity report for February that details where MDS volunteers are working and what they are doing—and I got goosebumps. The report, assembled by Gabby Bomberger, program administrative assistant, is entitled “What’s Happening Across the MDS Network.”
Go ahead. Look over my shoulder and onto the computer screen. You will read about volunteers working coast-to-coast, from British Columbia to Florida, from Alaska to the shores of Maryland. For example, they are mucking out and making repairs to a church basement in Bakersfield, CA. They are building bridges in West Virginia and roofs in Alabama. They are building walls for homes to stand the test of time in south Texas and in Newfoundland. They are responding to floods, fires, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Not to be outdone, volunteers rose up on the campus of a high school in the Bruderhof community of Esopus, NY where they are building a modular home.
Read out loud the names of towns where hope is arising with new homes and it’s like a symphony of joy: Dayton, Dulac, Mayfield, McAllen and Okanogan, too. Sing the second and third verse of where repairs are happening out of the ashes and mud: Bakersfield, Clendenin, Darby, Eastwick and Hurley. There is Jennings, Knoxville, Lake Charles, Laurel too…. (take another breath), Marianna, Mt. Vernon, Princeton, and Sturgis, too.
Even as I write this, there are other locations I haven’t yet read about, but are just as full of joy.
Won’t you join the mighty chorus? We invite you to pray for this faith in action, to give generously, and to bring your friends and volunteer for a week or more. We urgently need leadership volunteers that can serve for four weeks or more as cooks, crew leaders, office managers, construction supervisors or project directors. Come sing with us. You might get goosebumps too.
