Series 13 - Mennonite Disaster Service

The BC section of Mennonite Disaster Service was first organized in November, 1956 at a meeting in the Greendale MB Church where Bill Wiebe was elected the first chairman. Their purpose was to come to the aid of people in Canada and the USA who had suffered the loss of their homes and other belongings through fire, flood, hurricanes or other natural disasters.

One of their first projects was to assist the Red Cross in taking care of Hungarian refugees being temporarily housed at the Abbotsford airport. In 1969 workers responded to the needs in Gulfport and Biloxi Mississippi after Hurricane Camille, in 1987 it was a tornado in Edmonton and in 1988 it was Hurricane Joan in Nicaragua. More recently MDS was involved in helping people affected by a flood in Pemberton, in 2003, as well as the fires near Kelowna and the Barrier/Lewis Creek areas. In 2005 and the following years many were involved in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans, Louisiana area and later, in 2007, the flood in Terrace.

Mennonite Disaster Service became independent of MCC in 1993. The BC section of MDS remains an integral part of the Canadian association and is linked to the parent organization in the USA.