

Region IV Annual Meeting will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13 and 14, 2013 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Ontario, CA
The hotel is five minutes from the Ontario, CA, airport and the hotel offers complimentary pickup and return to the airport. The meeting and room block will be at the DoubleTree at a rate of $94.00 per night and includes a full buffet breakfast. The benefit of the hotel location eliminates the need for other transportation costs to navigate between the airport, hotel and the meeting location.
For more information, e-mail Region4(at)mds.mennonite.net
Save the Date
Region IV is hosting the 2014 All-Unit Meeting in Bakersfield, CA, Feb. 7-8, 2014. Registration materials will be posted when available.
Click here to view a video about the 2014 All-Unit meeting.
Washington Unit Partnership Home House
The Washington Unit built a PHP house in Ramona, CA. Their client, Jerry, lost his home in the fires of 2007. The house wall panels were built in a parking lot in Royal, WA, were trucked to Ramona, and are being “put together” on the foundation there.
Dedication
A large group gathered to dedicate the last of 15 homes that have been built by volunteers in response to the Witch Fire of October 2007. This last home was built as a PHP house by the Washington MDS Unit.
People representing the San Diego Foundation were at the celebration to have the first-hand experience of what their generous gifts of funding had accomplished. These funds assisted the clients with resources to buy materials for the new homes.
A very effective partnership was formed to work together to make a difference in the lives of families that were without hope, as home owner, Jerry Gentellalli said with tears welling up in his eyes.
Most of the California MDS Unit Board, Freeman Hershberger, Region IV Director and Cory Axness, Arizona Unit Chair, were also at the dedication.
Freeman Hershberger, Region Chair, and Cory Axness, Unit Chair, from Phoenix, AZ, also attended the dedication and when the service was over they hooked up the tool trailer and started home helping to bring this chapter to a close.

The walls go up at the PHP house in Ramona, CA.
Region IV Information:
Region IV RV Project in Green Valley Lake Located between Los Angeles and San Diego counties, Green Valley Lake is at 7200 feet and surrounded by a National Forest. For all these reasons it has remained a very small,...[more]
Area: 1,283,934 square miles (includes Alaska, Hawaii, Pacific Ocean protectorates e.g., Guam, Micronesia)
Units: 5 active
Congregations: 237 in MDS database
Most common disasters: floods, wildfires, volcanoes, earthquakes (also possibility of tsunamis)
Biggest disasters: Cedar fires, San Diego, 2003; Yuba City, California, floods, 1997; Loma Prieta earthquake, San Francisco Bay area, 1989; Washington and Oregon floods, 1996; Alaska fires, 1996
2006 major local responses: rebuilding after house fire, Reedley, California; church repair after fire, Ventura, California; home repair, cleanup after flood, Washington
Reports