It was Thursday morning, four days into my first week at Highland Park Elementary School, and I was sitting on the floor in the office cutting out still more newly laminated classroom decorations for the teachers. The principal turned to me and said, “After you’re done with that, I have a terribly mundane and tedious job for you.”
Brethren Volunteer Service
Annual BRF Unit of Brethren Volunteer Service Begins a Year of Service
The annual Brethren Revival Fellowship unit of Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) has completed orientation and begun a year of volunteer service. All of the members of the unit are serving at the same project site, the Root Cellar in Lewiston, Maine, where one volunteer also will do work connected with the neighborhood around Horton Street House.
Brethren Volunteer Service Unit 305 Completes Orientation, Begins Service
The summer unit of Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) completed orientation on Aug. 8 at Camp Mardela on the eastern shore of Maryland. The group of 12 volunteers is the 305th unit of BVS. Following are the names of the volunteers, their home congregations or home towns, and project placements:
‘100 Years for Nonviolence’ Is Celebrated at the IFOR Centennial Gathering
“Pray and resist!” That was the message from Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1976, at the Aug. 1 opening ceremony of the Centennial of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). The centennial celebration was held in Konstanz, Germany, on Aug. 1-3.
Callie Surber Resigns from Brethren Volunteer Service Staff
Callie Surber has resigned as orientation coordinator for Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS), a position she has held since September 2007. .
Brethren Volunteer Service Workers Are in Five Nations Across Europe
Fifteen Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) workers are serving in five nations across Europe. Here is an update on BVS project sites in Europe, where three volunteers are the first to serve in new projects for the program. The following listing is provided with help from Kristin Flory of the BVS staff, who works in the Brethren Service Europe office in Geneva, Switzerland:
Protests Reveal a Country’s Struggle: A BVSer Reports from Bosnia
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) worker Stephanie Barras provided this report from Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she has been living since Sept. 2013. She is working at OKC Abrasevic, a youth cultural center: I will do my best to explain what has been happening here after the Feb. 7 protests. A day or so before, there was
Volunteers to Set out on ‘BVS Coast to Coast’ Bicycle Tour
Two Brethren Volunteer Service workers are setting out on a bicycle tour called “BVS Coast to Coast.” Chelsea Goss, of Mechanicsville, Va., and Rebekah Maldonado-Nofziger, of Pettisville, Ohio, plan to cross the country on their bicycles in support of the Church of the Brethren program.
Brethren Volunteer Service Unit 304 Completes Orientation
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) Unit 304 has completed the Winter orientation, held Jan, 26-Feb. 14 at Camp Ithiel in Gotha, Fla. Following are the names of the volunteers, their home congregation or home town, and placement sites:
Global Food Crisis Grants Support New BVS Position in Public Witness, Agriculture in DRC Congo and Rwanda
The Global Food Crisis Fund (GFCF) this week announces three grants, to support a new Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) position at the Church of the Brethren Office of Public Witness, and for agriculture work in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.