{"id":5692,"date":"2017-07-12T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=5692"},"modified":"2017-07-12T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T13:00:35","slug":"ebrethren-7-12-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2017\/07\/12\/ebrethren-7-12-17\/","title":{"rendered":"A passion to serve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Paige Butzlaff (left) and fellow volunteers of
BVS unit 313 serving during orientation.
Photos by BVS Staff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Paige Butzlaff<\/em><\/p>\n

Since high school I knew I would join Brethren Volunteer Service <\/a>(BVS). Little did I know that it would shape me for the rest of my life. But what I\u2019ve come to discover throughout this whole experience, from switching projects, from being hospitalized due to depression, from continuously doubting my capabilities to complete assignments, and to even doubting my own faith, I\u2019ve come out stronger and more steadfast in the direction I want to steer my life. I\u2019ve developed passions for things that make my heart sing. I\u2019ve grown farther and yet closer to my faith than ever before. I knew BVS would be somewhat like college, where one leaves home and everything they ever knew to embark on a journey of discovering who they are and what they were put on earth to accomplish, and that\u2019s why I wanted to join BVS.<\/p>\n

When I was seven years old I wrote in my diary that I wanted to help \u201cpoor, needy and sick people.\u201d I didn\u2019t know it at that time, but that\u2019s when I found my calling in life. I now know that I\u2019m passionate about not just helping others, but serving them. Helping implies that someone is helpless, but serving implies that you are encouraging someone to find their own strength, not denying that they can take care of themselves. Helping puts the helper on a pedestal. But serving puts you right there with the person you are serving, so your humanity meshes with their humanity. Rarely do we get the chance to recognize our own humanity, let alone acknowledge others, and empathize with them, especially in the culture we\u2019ve been born and raised in.<\/p>\n

BVS has helped me be the person I want to be. I\u2019m serving others in a capacity that I never thought I\u2019d be doing, but it\u2019s worked and I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity. What\u2019s allowed me to discover more about who I am as an individual and where I\u2019ll leave my mark in this world is not only my work at the General Offices, but the everyday occurrences between places I visit and people I meet. I\u2019ve learned so much about myself by attending Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren, and I\u2019ve met some incredible people there. My housemates at the BVS house in Elgin are inspiring people, and although we don\u2019t always see eye to eye on issues, they have been super supportive of my journey and I have learned a lot about them as well. Who knows what\u2019s in store for me after BVS, but I\u2019ll always have this experience to look back on and thank God for providing me with this incredible opportunity.<\/p>\n

Paige Butzlaff recently finished serving through Brethren Volunteer Service<\/a> as a volunteer in Congregational Life Ministries<\/a>. Learn more about the life-changing ministries of the Church of the Brethren at www.brethren.org<\/a>, or support them today at www.brethren.org\/give<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(Read this issue of eBrethren<\/a>)\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paige Butzlaff Since high school I knew I would join Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS). Little did I know that it would shape me for the rest of my life. But what I\u2019ve come to discover throughout this whole experience, from switching projects, from being hospitalized due to depression, from continuously doubting my capabilities to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,273,357],"class_list":["post-5692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ebrethren","tag-brethren-volunteer-service","tag-congregational-life-ministries","tag-ebrethren"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}