From MDR Disaster Relief to Heaven Sent

Heaven Sent Community Services and Veterans Assistance, Inc.
Building on the Legacy of MDR Disaster Relief & Veterans Outreach

Heaven Sent Community Services and Veterans Assistance, Inc. is a veteran‑led, faith‑centered nonprofit serving veterans, seniors, individuals with disabilities, caregivers, and families in crisis throughout Central Florida. Our mission is to walk beside people in their hardest moments with practical help, housing support, advocacy, casework, and spiritual encouragement so no one is left unseen or alone.

How MDR Disaster Relief began

Our story began in 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when catastrophic flooding left entire neighborhoods under water. MDR Disaster Relief & Veterans Outreach was launched to meet that need. Through the generosity of Masonic bodies in the Northern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite and other Masonic orders, MDR was entrusted with major support to help rebuild Baton Rouge. Working side by side with local Masonic lodges—including Prince Hall, York Rite, Scottish Rite, and the Shriners—we helped rebuild hundreds of homes for families who had lost everything.

What started as a small team of like‑minded volunteers quickly grew. Over time, MDR responded to more than a dozen major disasters across multiple states. We learned how to organize logistics, manage truckloads of in‑kind donations, and coordinate teams of volunteers, veterans, and community partners. In one deployment to the Lake Charles and DeRidder, Louisiana area, our network secured tens of millions of dollars’ worth of in‑kind materials and support from hundreds of companies. We discovered that heart, trust, and relationships can move just as much as money ever could.

Along the way, we became experts at doing what many people thought was impossible: writing FEMA appeals, navigating complicated systems, and finding a way when there didn’t seem to be one. We rebuilt thousands of homes. We built a network of hundreds of vendors and donors who would answer the phone when we called. And we learned that the most important currency in disaster work is the ability to care, to ask, and to keep showing up.

What we learned in the storms

Those years in disaster zones taught us hard truths about our country. We saw that when the immediate crisis ends, the suffering often does not. We met veterans, seniors, and people with disabilities who were jailed for being homeless, punished for being poor or disabled, and left to choose between food and life‑saving medication. We met parents doing everything they could for their children and still falling through the cracks. We saw seniors eating pet food to survive, families living in parking lots, and caregivers burning out with nowhere to turn.

We also saw the best in people: volunteers driving through the night to deliver supplies, companies donating materials again and again, and communities that refused to give up on their own. We learned from FEMA, from the American Red Cross, from fellow disaster teams, and from our own military experience what it means to be disciplined, resilient, and mission‑focused. But we also saw the limits of traditional disaster‑only models. The work could not stop just because the cameras left or the storm moved on.

Why Heaven Sent was born

Out of all of this, a conviction formed: to truly serve “the forgotten people” of our communities—our veterans, our seniors, and our neighbors living with disabilities and chronic illness—we needed something more permanent than a disaster team. We needed a rooted, locally anchored nonprofit that could stand in the gap long after the floodwaters recede or the wind dies down.

That is why we created Heaven Sent Community Services and Veterans Assistance, Inc.

Heaven Sent is the next step in our journey—a new organization with a new name, updated bylaws, and a broader mission, but the same heart and much of the same team. Instead of only focusing on emergency rebuilding, Heaven Sent adds long‑term housing stabilization, coordinated case management, benefits navigation, veterans coaching, caregiver support, and faith‑based pastoral care. We bring everything we learned from MDR, the military, FEMA, and disaster relief, and we apply it to the everyday disasters people face: homelessness, eviction, hunger, isolation, trauma, and exhaustion.

What Heaven Sent does now

Our programs are designed to meet people where they are and walk with them step‑by‑step toward stability. That includes:

• Crisis intake, casework, and advocacy.
• Housing and shelter direction, with a focus on veterans, seniors, and people with disabilities.
• Transitional housing planning and a three‑stage pipeline from emergency shelter to advanced transitional housing.
• Connections to employment and vocational training.
• Benefits assistance and navigation for veterans and their families.
• Peer and pastoral support for those carrying invisible burdens such as PTSD, chronic illness, trauma, or caregiver fatigue.

For parents of children with disabilities, survivors of domestic violence, people living with battered person syndrome, and families caring for seniors or disabled adults, we prioritize safety, dignity, rest, and respect as sacred parts of our ministry.

Our Transitional Housing and Rehabilitation vision emphasizes sobriety, accountability, employment readiness, and long‑term housing stability. Our strategic plan sets measurable goals for moving participants from crisis to independence, not just counting beds, but tracking lives stabilized and futures rebuilt.

How we handle money and trust

We have seen firsthand how money can be used well—and how it can be misused. Looking at the world of nonprofits, we made a conscious decision to be different. Heaven Sent is committed to financial integrity, stewardship, and transparency. We are a fully recognized 501(c)(3) with an accepted IRS Form 990 and a published mission, vision, and strategic plan. We built our own website, completed our own exemption application, and handle our filings carefully and by the book.

We believe donated dollars and in‑kind gifts belong first and foremost to the people we serve—not to oversized executive salaries or bloated overhead. Our commitment is to keep leadership compensation modest and mission‑aligned, and to direct the bulk of our resources—cash and in‑kind—toward direct services for our clients: veterans, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and their families. We see ourselves as guardians of the donated dollar. We take that stewardship as seriously as the oaths many of us have taken in the military, in public service, and in fraternal and community organizations.

The Phoenix: why the name “Heaven Sent” matters

In many ways, Heaven Sent is like a phoenix rising from the fire of years of disaster work. MDR Disaster Relief & Veterans Outreach was the flame that forged our identity. Heaven Sent is the rebirth: stronger, more focused, and built to last. We did not leave our legacy behind—we carried it forward, refined it, and gave it a new home so we could fight a bigger fight.

Today, we stand for those who cannot stand alone: the veteran on the ledge, the senior choosing between medicine and food, the disabled neighbor facing eviction, and the families who feel forgotten. We work so that when someone reaches the end of their rope, the light at the end of the tunnel is not a speeding train—it is a team of like‑minded veterans, first responders, disaster‑relief workers, and community servants coming to help.

We are Heaven Sent. We are here to protect, to support, and to be a steady light in dark places. Our promise to our clients and our donors is simple: we will show up, we will care, and we will steward every gift—whether money, materials, or time—with honor, gratitude, and integrity. The legacy of MDR Disaster Relief & Veterans Outreach lives on in every life we touch through Heaven Sent Community Services and Veterans Assistance, Inc.

Contact & Support