Previous | Next 

CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
A fitting tribute to the work of MDS

John Klassen

The Hammer Rings Hope: Photos and Stories from Fifty Years of Mennonite Disaster Service Lowell Detweiler. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2000. 184 pp.

Here is an attractive coffee-table book celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mennonite Disaster Service. MDS began when adults in a Sunday school class in a Mennonite church in Hesston, Kansas decided to build on their conscientious objector experience during World War II. They were prepared to serve in an organized way if a natural disaster should provide the occasion. Their first opportunity came less than a year later in Missouri and Kansas because of flooding.

For the next 50 years, the need for voluntary help in the wake of tornadoes, floods, fire, and other natural disasters escalated. MDS has been active all over North America and Central America.

Excellent photos illustrate the book; many of the later ones are by Carl E. Hiebert. The stories clearly show that MDS volunteers take a holistic approach. Not only do they clean up after natural disasters and rebuild homes, but they take time to listen and befriend the victims.

One victim said, “I don’t understand it. All three of us survived, but she died.” Another remarked, “Just to watch them (MDS volunteers) work is enough to make an agnostic stop and think.”

A launching-out prayer by an MDS group ended with these words: “Help us, Lord, to lift high the banner of Christ by bending low in the mud.”

Former MDS volunteers will welcome this book as a fitting tribute to their efforts. Others may well be encouraged to volunteer their service in the future. Much information is presented here in a positive way. Recipients of aid express gratefulness, workers exude enthusiasm, and many of the pictures show a blue sky above the scenes of devastation and the subsequent reconstruction. It is truly a book about hope.

John Klassen is a member of River East MB Church in Winnipeg.

Previous | Next 

Last modified March 6, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.