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Hi Lisa,
In mid-October we held our annual meetings at Shantz Mennonite Church in Baden, Ontario. The weekend’s events were a great expression of the grassroots leadership present in MDS Canada, and the ways in which volunteer leaders help shape this robust organization to respond nimbly to disasters today.
I was struck by a wonderful contrast of perspectives at our celebration banquet. Two service scholarship recipients from Conrad Grebel University College shared about the hands-on skills they learned on a month-long volunteer assignment, while young women from an Old Colony Mennonite community in Leamington, Ontario, recounted firsts — from flying to drywalling — on a one-week service trip to the North Shuswap.
Meetings, consultations and the banquet renewed friendships and strengthened our fellowship. These gatherings were a powerful reminder of Galatians 5:6 (NIV): The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
I’m grateful to the many leaders — board members, delegates, response coordinators, and weekly volunteers — who came to fellowship and discern together. I think, too, of the wider MDS community of volunteers, who were not present but express their faith through loving action. Your collective response makes a real difference to disaster survivors when they need support most!
With gratitude,
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