MDS responds to tornado devastation

AKRON, PA.

Mennonite Disaster Service is responding to needs of residents in Oklahoma and Kansas after violent tornadoes tore through town after town on May 3, leaving behind death and destruction.

After investigating many of the affected areas, the Oklahoma MDS Unit has organized work teams to clean up in Mulhall, Dover and Bridge Creek, and anticipates clean-up for other communities.

"Towns are devastated," said Bill Mast, chair of the Oklahoma MDS Unit. "There are homes that are completely destroyed with nothing left but the foundation. Yesterday, we helped a family go through their personal possessions. We told the American Red Cross and the Oklahoma Civil Emergency Operations that MDS will be in [the clean up] for the long haul."

MDS Region III Director Vernon Miller and MDS Field Consultant Wilbur Litwiller are looking for a location in the metro Oklahoma City area to set up project headquarters for a long-term response. Headquarters in the metro area will give MDS accessibility to rebuild homes in a number of affected communities. MDS Mental Health workers Paul Unruh and Joe Steiner are in Oklahoma assessing the recovery needs of stricken individuals and families.

The MDS unit in Kansas is continuing clean up efforts in Haysville. A long-term response will be set up in the Wichita area. The unit is still rebuilding homes damaged by fall 1998 floods in Augusta, Kan.

Rebuilding efforts were slated to begin in May.

Dozens of class F-5 tornadoes, the most powerful category with winds up to 418 km/h, left at least 46 people dead and more than 500 injured. Even in an area infamously named "Tornado Alley", residents said the damage was the worst in memory. Entire rows of homes were flattened. Officials calculated that more than 18,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Cost estimates soared past $700 million US.--Mennonite Disaster Service, Maclean's

FRESNO, CALIF.

At West Park Hispanic Mennonite Brethren Church, the congregation listens to Jose Elizondo, associate district minister of the Pacific District MB Conference, speak about God's love and gift of salvation. He speaks passionately of the hope that Jesus Christ offers to a hopeless world. "Will you give your life to Christ and receive His gift of love?" he asks in Spanish. Twelve people come forward to accept Christ.

The previous week, 45 people received Christ at West Park Church. Four months earlier, church attendance was at 20; now it is growing weekly with conversions. Not far away is Raisin City MB Church, a young congregation that four months ago struggled to have more than six people attend. Since January, the church has grown to 52.

What is the cause of this growth?

West Park Hispanic and Raisin City MB Churches are two of nine Hispanic churches in the Pacific District MB Conference that are responding to needy families affected by a severe freeze in December 1998. Eighty percent of the citrus crop in the San Joaquin farming communities in central California was destroyed, and 80-85 percent of the families who depend on the crop for their livelihood were left jobless.

In response, the California Mennonite Disaster Service Unit and the Hispanic Caucus of MB Churches reach out to those families affected by the freeze and invite them to church where they hear the gospel and are given a box of food.

"We tell people to come to church, listen to the Word of God and we'll give you a box of groceries," says Elizondo, who is heading up the response. "We're giving them physical nourishment, but more importantly, we're giving them spiritual nourishment. We could just hand out the groceries, but that would only bring them temporary relief. Giving them Christ brings them eternal relief."

Food is donated through the local churches and the MDS office, and is purchased from the Fresno Community Food Bank. It is then distributed through the nine churches. Since February, the churches have handed out boxes of groceries to 2,600 families. While there are sufficient funds to provide food through June, more money is needed to assist with rent and utility bills.--Mennonite Disaster Service

FRESNO, CALIF.

The California Mennonite Disaster Service Unit provided financial assistance to seven Southeast Asian farming families from Butler Khmu (MB) Church in Fresno, Calif., after an Easter weekend freeze destroyed their crops.

The seven farmers, who can't afford crop insurance, were depending on this year's harvest of eggplant, chili peppers, mint and lemon grass to buy seeds for next year's crop. By partnering with Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM), the MDS unit distributed a total of $800 to the farmers. The money will enable them to purchase seed and replace the crops they lost.--Mennonite Disaster Service

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