Anne Tipton was pointing out normal, everyday parts of her home. “I sat in that chair and did a puzzle. There was the ironing board. Those were our camp chairs.” But her home is now made up of ashes, and her belongings so burnt they’re only shaky outlines of what they used to be. Tipton lives in Altadena, in California’s San Gabriel Valley, on a street where nearly every home burned in the Eaton Fire in January. She wants Altadena to come back. She knows the community can’t be the same—too much is gone—but she wants the people who make up the heart of the community to stay and rebuild. “Altadena has a very mixed income, and mixed races and ages,” she said. “What I want people to know is that, here, the average family is still trying to live their lives every day.” Read the full story via the link below! #MDSResponds #RespondRebuildRestore #MennoniteDisasterService (fb)

Juan Pablo Plaza prays for wisdom every day. As a husband, a father of two young girls, and a pastor for the Connexiones Church of the Brethren in Pasadena, California, he’s trying to care for a lot of people. Plaza lost his home—a parsonage owned by the church—to the Eaton Fire in January. Since then, he and his family have been living an hour’s drive away from the church, and an hour’s drive from the girls’ elementary school. But Plaza is glad to make the drive. “Our daughters have already lost their home,” he said. “We didn’t want them to lose their school and their friends as well.” “Fire has no social class,” Plaza said. “A lot of people from my church had jobs cleaning houses—and those houses burned, so they have no jobs now.” Read the full story via the link below! #MDSResponds #RespondRebuildRestore #MennoniteDisasterService (fb)