DownloadJuly 6, 2009 issue
MDS work in La. mends houses and relationships
By Scott Sundberg Mennonite Disaster ServicePage:
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NEW IBERIA, La. — In just four weeks, Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers from northern New York built a new house to replace one destroyed by Hurricane Gustav.
Marie Brown, friends, family and MDS volunteers in front of the home. — Photo provided by MDS
The project helped rebuild relationships as well as a house.
Marie Brown’s home in Baldwin was destroyed when an oak tree fell on it.
Different crews worked on the house every week beginning April 29, but all came from the MDS New York unit. Most of them came from Lewis County Mennonite churches.
The homeowner had some finances for material, but not for labor, so MDS provided free labor to build the house.
“This is a great program,” Brown said during the build. “This is just like family.”
The Brown home is one of four houses built this year by MDS as part of its Partnership Home Program. Through the program, church groups can adopt a family in need of a house, and then either build the house on site or build much of it away from the site, perhaps in a church parking lot, and take it down in parts to complete it on site.
“Most of the people we had down there are in construction,” said Melvin Roes, MDS project director and New York unit chair, explaining why the build was so fast. “It was basically, ‘Get down there, get it done and get out!’ ”
Even so, in the weeks the teams worked in New Iberia relationships were built also. Roes tells many stories about how their work helped to mend longtime rifts, as well as strained relationships with neighbors and within Brown’s own family.
“There was a next-door neighbor who had a history with Marie,” Roes said. So it was a stretch when Roes needed power to work on Brown’s house, as the temporary power they had planned on didn’t pan out. Roes offered to fix the neighbor’s carport, damaged by Hurricane Rita, in exchange for power. The neighbor still expected to pay for the fixing of her carport, but Roes insisted it was free.
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