MDS executive director Kevin King and long-term volunteer, board member and MDS project director Abe Ens. Photo by Steven Sukkau

Mennonite Disaster Service offers more than clean-up

“We all have to be Christ’s hands and feet when people need it the most.”

By Steven Sukkau and ChristianWeek | April 22, 2014

WINKLER, MB—Hundreds of supporters for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) gathered in Winkler in April, many of them past and present volunteers, to hear how God is moving men and women to serve people devastated by destruction.

Executive director Kevin King says he has seen first hand the hope and restoration MDS brings, even as the pattern of increasing numbers of disasters take place each year.

Since taking the role 11 years ago, King saw three to four major disasters a year, now he says that number has nearly tripled. MDS is also staying on location for as long as two to seven years.

“You go and clean up, but it’s more than that,” King says. “It takes time to rebuild.”

When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, MDS remained to rebuild for seven years. Long after the news coverage quits, MDS stays to rebuild the primary residence, many of their clients are elderly, single parents and uninsured.

It’s a job that breaks his heart, seeing a single mother with four children, working nights to provide for her family, only to lose their home in the flood in High River, Alberta spring 2013.

“It’s moving,” King says. “They have nothing. MDS brings more than just a house, we bring hope.”

It’s a “hands-on” type of love for Christ their volunteers sign up for, King explains. While many Christians tell him they can’t become a long-term missionary in India, they can take a week to paint a house in High River, Alberta, or help hammer nails.

“We take the skilled and unskilled,” King said, busting the myth you have to be a contractor to serve, and you certainly don’t have to be Mennonite, though you may become a fan of their cooking during your stay.

For the volunteers it’s also often a life-changing experience meeting the clients, entering into the lives of disaster survivors.

“I didn’t know such people existed in this world,” many clients have told King. “I didn’t know such goodness was still in the world.”

MDS operates in both the U.S and Canada, and King said there’s been a strong collaboration between the two countries, with thousands of volunteers coming from Canada to serve their southern neighbours.

“What I appreciate so much is we get so many volunteers from Canada to go south,” King says. “They’ve responded.”

However, the real challenge facing MDS is not only responding to the unpredictable ebb and flow of disasters. “We never know where it will hit,” King says, but maintaining a stable of long-term volunteers. Those willing to stay on location for a month or more often become the site directors or supervisors, in contrast to the short term volunteers who come for a week. While King says they appreciate both, it’s the longer-term volunteers that are in short supply, often retirees who don’t have to worry about taking time off work.

For King, the desire to help folks out in their worst need began as a young farm boy watching his dad drive a pick-up truck loaded with volunteers to a tornado site.

“I heard stories about houses torn apart, but ordinary people going to help,” King says. “Little did I know those seeds were planted at an early age.”

King went on to serve oversees with MCC for 20 years before taking the top job at MDS, overseeing 16 staff, traveling and speaking to churches of the need and the opportunity we all have to be Christ’s hands and feet when people need it the most.

“I love my job,” King says. “I see the best in people.”