PHONE: 800-257-0515         NEWSLETTER: SIGN UP

USMB

USMB

Increasing Impact Together

T 800-257-0515
Email: offices@usmb.org

USMB
PO Box 20200 Wichita, KS 67208

  • USMB Family
    • Who We Are
      • About Us
      • Who are the Mennonite Brethren
      • What We Believe
      • Our Story
      • Anabaptism
      • Board of Faith and Life
      • Staff and Board
    • Districts & Churches
      • District Overview
      •  
        Click and navigate on our interactive map to find a district.
    • NextGen
      •  
        USMB NextGen is designed to help build the next generation of leaders and to be the bridge between them and other generations to increase the impact both can have upon each other.
    • Family of Organizations
      • Fresno Pacific University and Seminary
      • Tabor College
      • MB Foundation
      • Multiply (formerly MB Mission)
      • Historical Commission
      • ICOMB
      • Other Affiliates
  • Christian Leader
    • Title
      • CL Features
      • CL News
      • CL Columns & Essays
      • CL Subscriptions
      • About CL
    • When anxiety takes root
      In the fall of 2019, my church offered a five-week home group study on the topic of anxiety. Little did we know just how vital these small groups would prove as 2020 rolled around the corner. To this day, I keep a handwritten note identifying three areas that stirred a sense of anxiety within me. […]
    • Harris driven by desire to connect with nonbelievers
      Brian Harris remembers asking about faith in third grade, but no one had answers for life’s biggest questions. “I wish I had met somebody who could have explained the gospel to me,” says Harris, who grew up in a nominal Christian household in Ohio. “For at least six years, I was asking anybody who would […]
    • Coming home
      In my Jan/Feb column I wrote about the influence of secularism in the American church today and how it can skew our focus and even lead us away from living in God’s truth. I wrote that only a small percentage of Christians in America today hold a true biblical worldview. With this in mind, what […]
  • What We Do
    • Church Multiplication
      •  
        Church planting continues to be a crucial area of ministry for USMB. Studies show churches are the most effective way to bring more people into the family of God. Partnering with local churches, districts, USMB and Multiply to plant churches, is not just a good thing to do, we must do it.
    • Disciple-Making
      •  
        USMB is actively involved in helping provide our churches with dynamic ideas, resources and programs for helping people become fully-devoted followers of Jesus. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples ….” We strive to facilitate that profound command.
    • Leadership Development
      •  
        USMB’s leadership development strategy stems from the real need to actively develop more leaders within the local church who are living on mission in the workplace and in their communities and to fulfill the demand for additional pastors, church planters and missionaries. READ MORE about Leadership Development opportunities.
  • Resources
    • Christian Leader
    • Resource Library
      • USMB Vision Updates
    • LEAD Pods
    • Confession of Faith
      • Confession of Faith – Spanish
      • Confession of Faith – Russian
    • Pastoral Licensing Documents
    • Faith and Life Pamphlet Series
    • LEAD Initiatives for Pastors and Churches
  • Events
    • Current Events
    • LEAD Cohorts
    • LEAD One Events
    • Event Archives
OnlineDonations

MDS experience a personal resurrection

by usmb2 / Wednesday, 26 April 2017 / Published in Technology

On Good Friday, April 14, 2017, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteer Kory Jones was baptized in the middle fork of the Mokelumne River in Calaveras County in northern California.

By dipping Jones deep into the roaring waters of the Mokelumne, swollen by abundant California winter rains, Pastor Jeff Haight of Westpoint Community Covenant Church in Calaveras County, was part of a resurrection experience.

At the time of his baptism Jones was an MDS volunteer. He was also recovering from substance abuse, was unemployed and had lost his wife, home, truck and reputation because of his addictions.

He started attending Vinewood Community Church, Lodi, California, a Mennonite Brethren church about an hour away from MDS’s project camp in Calaveras County, and it was there he learned of a call for volunteers to assist MDS.

He spotted a bulletin announcement asking for volunteers to drive the church van and pick up some MDS volunteers at the train station and take them to the MDS camp in Calaveras.

March 19, 2017, Jones started as a weekly volunteer in Lake County, about two hours northwest of Lodi, where he lived. He served there two weeks.

Jones says he was amazed at the way he was accepted and trusted from the start. He loved the way serving with MDS made him feel valued and useful again.

“I had a nice house, a brand new truck, a great job—all that stuff—but I was most miserable when I had all that stuff,” he says. “When you work for disaster survivors you realize what the necessities are. It’s a different way of looking at things.”

Jones describes his condition prior to volunteering with MDS as being “stuck.” He was spending his nights at the Salvation Army and attending Vinewood Church’s Celebrate Recovery program.

He had been looking for work for two years but doors closed in his face. He had been in law enforcement and loved helping other people. This chance to help people as a volunteer seemed like a good opportunity.

After two weeks at Lake County, the project director asked Jones if he would transport the MDS truck to the Calaveras County project since the Lake County project was closing. Jones was impressed that after just two weeks working together, they would entrust him with an MDS vehicle.

He didn’t have anything to go home to, so he asked if he could continue as a volunteer in Calaveras. The project director there said he could. After a week volunteering in Calaveras, Jones went back to Lodi for the weekend to attend his Celebrate Recovery group and go to church.

After the worship service one of the members approached him and said that he would soon need a project foreman for his landscaping company. He wanted Jones to come work for him.

Jones went back to Calaveras for a second week, thinking about the offer. It was a difficult decision. He was finding his MDS work so fulfilling and healing, but also felt like the Lord was providing for him through the fellow church member. He decided to take the job. He started Monday, April 17, 2017.

Although Jones was new in his Christian faith he wanted to be baptized. An MDS project director pointed him to the Westpoint Community Covenant Church and Pastor Haight. The long term MDS worker attended the Westpoint church.

From there a decision was made to baptize Jones on Good Friday. Haight, along with another pastor from the church joined family and friends on the banks of the Mokelumne. One church member stood strategically downstream in case one of the three lost their footing in the rushing waters.

Everyone emerged safely and Jones fell into the arms of an aunt and cousin who he says, “never lost faith in him.”

“It’s all kind of uncanny,” Jones says. “I didn’t pick the day, but I got baptized on Good Friday and here it is Easter and it’s like a personal resurrection.”

“While I’ve been building MDS houses, I’ve been building my own house,” he continues, “building on the foundation of Christ, something that will be there forever.”

Jones reflected on how his time with MDS did more for his rehabilitation than any 30-day rehab experience. “People were trusting me to build them a new home.”

“People who were homeless [disaster survivors] made me not homeless,” he says. “My recovery is so much stronger now.” And so is his faith thanks to the waters of the Mokelumne.

Mennonite Disaster Service is the disaster response agency supported by Mennonite churches.

Photo: Mennonite Disaster Service

0
  • Tweet

What you can read next

Peruvian MBs help neighbors amid loss

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • LEAD One Events

  • LEAD Cohorts

  • YouthCon photos

Contact

USMB - Midwest Office
PO Box 20200
Wichita, KS 67208

T (316) 558-8688
Toll Free (800) 257-0515

Donna Sullivan, Secretary/Acct
Email: offices@usmb.org

Janae Rempel, Executive Assistant
Email: admin@usmb.org


USMB TWITTER

Could not authenticate you.
  • GET SOCIAL
USMB

© 2017 All rights reserved. USMB.

TOP

Find a Church