FALL 2016 Behind the HAMMER COVER STORY — TEXAS People who don’t call it quits 4 A SPARK AWAY FROM DISASTER 8 ALL WITH ONE PURPOSE 10 KANSAS UNIT CONTINUES TRADITION 12 Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is a volunteer network of Anabaptist churches that responds in Christian love to those affected by disasters in Canada and the United States. While the main focus is on clean up, repair and rebuilding homes, this service touches lives and nurtures hope, faith and wholeness. Our programs, funded by contributions, aim to assist the most vulnerable community members, individuals and families who, Mennonite without assistance, would not have ON THE COVER Disaster the means to recover. MDS volunteers MDS volunteer Service Stefan Penner — women and men, youth and adults — clears out burnt Behind the Hammer is published quarterly by provide the skills and labor needed to trees in Bastrop, Texas. Photo by Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and is available respond, rebuild and restore. Andrew Huth. for free upon request. This magazine shares the stories of MDS work in the U.S. and Canada and of the more than 4,000 volunteers who are the core of MDS. The stories are meant to encourage people to COVER FEATURE — TEXAS continue expressing the love of God through the People who don’t call it quits 4 work of MDS. FEATURE — WASHINGTON Executive Director: Kevin King A spark away from disaster 8 Editor: Mark Beach Contributors: Susan Kim, Andrew Huth, Jon Rutter, VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE Kristin Troyer, Paul Hunt All with one purpose 10 Designer: Julie Kauffman Something different 11 Publication Coordination: Barb Weaver RECIPE — COOKING FOR A CROWD STAY CONNECTED Sailing Brownies 11 If you have story ideas, need subscription information, want to make a donation or volunteer, UNIT IN ACTION — KANSAS please contact us: Continuing the tradition 12 Mennonite Disaster Service REGIONS AT A GLANCE 13 583 Airport Road, Lititz, PA 17543 USA tel: (800) 241-8111 | (717) 735-3536 FEATURE — WEST VIRGINIA A trail of generosity 14 fax: (717) 735-0809 e-mail: [email protected] Q+A — BRENT TROYER Mennonite Disaster Service The keeper of the fleet 15 (Canada office) SAFETY TIP 6A-1325 Markham Rd, Winnipeg, MB R3T 4J6 Canada Wear a mask 15 tel: (866) 261-1274 | (204) 261-1274 fax: (204) 261-1279 e-mail: [email protected] mds.mennonite.net 2 BEHIND THE HAMMER DIRECTOR’S LETTER Let the lion roar. Are we raving mad? This may be the “Director’s” corner of Behind the Hammer, but it is also a place where I step aside for a moment and share something from what I’ll call the “Volunteer’s” corner. Early this summer we received an inspiring, yet challeng- ing weekly report from our volunteers in Detroit. It appeared the phrase “muck-out” was taking on a deeper meaning. In late June the team wrote, “last week we mucked out and pressure washed a basement” which was inundated by 10 inches of water and sewage in the August 2014 flood. This is nothing new for Detroit volunteers. But then they wrote, “the despairing news this week is that the basement was once again full of water” … this time 12 inches of water. They mucked it out again. This experience led the writer of the report, Elyse Merritt, a Disaster Management Program student of Hesston College, to reflect on the ups and downs of life. The idea is of the taking of one step forward in faith and seemingly two steps backward, yet still holding to the faith. “God is greater than the mountains in life we may be facing,” she wrote. Or the mucking and re-mucking out of a family’s basement. “The idea is of the taking If a “muck-out’ were a mile, how many extras miles of one step forward in faith would we go for our brothers and sisters in Detroit, West Virginia, Texas, and elsewhere where folks have suffered and seemingly two steps from natural disasters? I believe we will muck it out again if backward, yet still holding that is what needs to be done. to the faith.” I also believe what Elyse points us toward when she quotes 1 Peter 5: 8-10. “The enemy, the devil, is prowling around outside like a roaring lion just waiting and hoping for the chance to devour someone.” The lion is going to roar, and we should not despair. Elyse wants us to have courage and faith. So I say, let the lion roar for we will not despair. To the CURRENT BINATIONAL PROJECTS AS OF SEPT/ OCT 2016 world it may appear crazy to muck-out, then muck-out again. But then we will plug the hole. Elevate the houses, or where CALAVERAS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA we can, build on higher ground. Strengthen the walls. Secure the foundation. Bring hope again. DETROIT, MICHIGAN “It can sure seem like madness that God calls us to be GREENBRIER COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA strong and rejoice in the midst of suffering,” Elyse and the LAKE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA team wrote. “But He is our strength and support, and He will not let us go. God’s love came like madness through the SAIPAN, NORTH MARIANAS ISLANDS life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the life we live is WEST VIRGINIA BRIDGES for Him and His glory. “It makes no sense, but this is grace.” RV PROJECTS IN S. CAROLINA + TEXAS (Lyrics from the song “Madness” by Hillsong United) Amen to our sister Elsye and the Detroit team. You FIND UPDATES AT MDS.MENNONITE.NET inspire us all. BEHIND THE HAMMER 3 For a great-grandmother in Bastrop, Texas, MDS volunteers are a sign that God will provide People who don’t call it quits Mary Owens, sitting at the kitchen table with her 8-year-old that affected her whole community. great-granddaughter Lia, is explaining why she feels nervous For Owens, this year’s flooding was a replay — only whenever it rains in Bastrop, Texas. worse — of floods that struck in May 2015. “This year, I had three feet of water in my house,” she “I’ve lived here since 2005 and I’ve never had water in said. “In the middle of the night, at 1 a.m., we had tornado my home until last year, when two rooms were flooded,” she warnings. So we got in the closet, and pretty soon, I thought: said. “This year, the water went all over.” what’s that coming under the door?” It was floodwater, streaming in — cold, muddy and MULTIPLE DISASTERS, RETURNING VOLUNTEERS frighteningly fast. Bastrop, Texas has had such a string of disasters that many Lia, who lives with her great-grandmother, pauses as residents and responders have no words left to describe their she builds a Lego tower, which she has fastened to a set of misfortune. “After a while, you run out of things to say,” said wheels: “I thought I was going to drown,” she says. Carl Dube, who served in Bastrop as a project director for In what might be a defining characteristic of today’s Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) after a wildfire in 2011 great-grandmothers, Owens pulls out her flip-phone to that burned some 1,700 homes in the area. show some photos of the water cascading into her house the MDS volunteers rebuilt homes for three years after the night of the storm. Though dark and somewhat blurry, the 2011 fire, then the May 2015 flooding struck. That same year, pictures clearly portray one woman’s experience of a flood in October, as MDS crews were still working on burned and 4 BEHIND THE HAMMER Mary Owens, left, stands in her living room contemplating the flood damage to her home. Right, Indiana Amish youth remove trees from land scorched by fire in Bastrop, Texas. They are part of the MDS Summer Youth Project. flooded homes, another wildfire broke out, burning an addi- which young people stay at a nearby campground while they tional 65 homes. Then, in May 2016, floods struck again. repair homes every day for a week. After driving 22 hours “The folks in Bastrop and the long-term recovery team, from Indiana, a group of Amish young people have arrived even the volunteers — they have become a very dogged at Owens’s house and, as far as she is concerned, these young and determined group of people,” said Dube, who grew up people are a sign that God, indeed, will provide. They are in Austin, about a 30-minute drive from Bastrop. “They’ve sawing out still-damp sheetrock, cleaning out mold that been through a lot.” has crept up behind the walls, and replacing the sheetrock Though the faces of project directors and volunteer teams before they paint. Owens, whose foot is in a supportive boot change, the heart of MDS is steadfast. MDS keeps coming after surgery, helps when she can. back, offering help and hope to people in the small rural “I went to Bible study last night and I told my pastor: towns of Bastrop and nearby Smithfield, people who don’t I’m so blessed I could pinch myself,” she said. A member of seem to be calling it quits anytime soon. Mount Rose Baptist Church, she said the floods and vol- unteers have made her think about what it means to feel WHAT IS CONTENTMENT? content. “When you’re not content, you want more, more, This is the second time in a one-year span that MDS volun- more. Well, I don’t have any money. I don’t have a new car.