Brethren Volunteer Unit 333 completes orientation

By Walt Wiltschek

Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) Unit 333 held orientation Aug. 1-9 at Inspiration Hills Camp in Burbank, Ohio, with 13 volunteers and 3 staff participating. Six of the volunteers came from EIRENE, BVS’s long-time service partner in Germany.

The orientation included training sessions, group-building activities, volunteer-prepared meals, visits to local churches, and a service project at the camp. The week ended with a service of feetwashing, commissioning, and celebration. Greg Davidson Laszakovits, BVS Europe coordinator Sara Cook, Ben Bear, Emily Hooker, and Kayla Alphonse provided session leadership, joining the group remotely via Zoom, along with some staff-led sessions.

BVS, which is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary, will hold its next orientation Sept. 26-Oct. 4 at Camp Koinonia, Cle Elum, Wash.

For more information on BVS and how to apply to serve as a fulltime volunteer, visit www.brethrenvolunteerservice.org.

Brethren Volunteer Service Unit 333: (front row, from left) Cornelius Raff, Jonas Baron, Tatjana Matt, Sascha Dolatkiewicz, Anna Schweitzer, Haley Bannon; (back row) Luis Gernert, Nils Dornseifer, Alex Heinz, Tess Koontz, Kendall Brown, Marianne Fitzkee, Ashley Martin.

Please pray… For the volunteers in BVS Unit 333 that they will be blessed by and that they will bring blessings to the projects where they serve.

The volunteers, their congregations or hometowns, and the projects where they will be serving:

Haley Bannon of Brooklyn, N.Y., is going to Corrymeela in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.

Jonas Baron of Berlin, Germany, is serving with Camp Mardela in Denton, Md.

Kendall Brown of Ann Arbor, Mich., is working at the San Diego (Calif.) Peace Campus that is related to San Diego Church of the Brethren among other sponsoring organizations.

Sascha Dolatkiewicz of Bobritzsch-Hilbersdorf, Germany, is serving at Highland Park Elementary School in Roanoke, Va.

Nils Dornseifer of Neuwied, Germany, is serving at Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, Ark.

Marianne Fitzkee of Lancaster (Pa.) Church of the Brethren will work with Fundación Brethren y Unida in Quito, Ecuador.

Luis Gernert of Cologne, Germany, and Tatjana Matt of Bad Heilbrunn, Germany, are working at Abode Services in Fremont, Calif.

Alex Heinz of Elizabethtown (Pa.) Church of the Brethren will be at Inspiration Hills Camp in Burbank, Ohio, while awaiting long-term assignment.

Tess Koontz of Bedford (Pa.) Church of the Brethren will be serving with Creation Justice Ministries in Washington, D.C.

Ashley Martin of Wirtz, Va., will serve at Lydia’s House in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cornelius Raff of Mainz, Germany, will serve with the Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding and Policy in Washington, D.C.

Anna Schweitzer of Cedar Grove Church of the Brethren in New Paris, Ohio, is going to Project PLASE in Baltimore, Md.

— Walt Wiltschek is part-time office coordinator for Brethren Volunteer Service, and also works for the church as district executive minister for Illinois and Wisconsin District and on the editorial team for Messenger magazine.

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