My Year of Service

After a few essays, references, and 5 interviews to be offered a spot in the YAV program in DC, I guess I thought I had done the hard part of the prep to leave. Boy was I wrong. After a slurry of emails and preparation today, I am realizing that there is a lot more work to be done before the drive to the airport.

Most of the preparation is fundraising. The YAV program is very clear on the reason we are required to fundraise. Yes, it helps to offset some of the cost of hosting a YAV, but there is more to it. Fundraising helps build a community of support, a community that joins in your journey and follows you to your site in prayer and spirit. Fundraising so far has truly shown me how much my community wants to invest in me and the work I will be doing. It also is showing me that this isn’t a year just for me and for my own personal growth. I am going through the support of my community and God. I’m going to DC to serve others, but I am serving others for myself, my supporters, and my God.

I feel a sort of responsibility to my home church and community. We are beginning to enter a new stage of normalcy with the pandemic. For the past two years our church and community has put much of its time and efforts into finding ways to just continue existing. To me it felt as if the whole “serving others” and mission part of the world had to shut down. We have had to be in self preservation mode. I want to share this year of service to give a bit of hope to those in my community who may feel like little is being done to help others struggling in our country.

The prep has be a touch daunting but so far it has proved to give deeper meaning to what this next year will be. Stay tuned for more and if you are interested in contributing to my fundraising more information can be found here.