With winter in full swing and the LVC year approaching its halfway point, it’s easy to get sucked down into a portal of stress and cold. I like to think that what’s kept us afloat through it all has been our ability to smile through it all. This includes smiling through car troubles, below-freezing wind chills, or even just the stress of everyday life. We always seem to lift each other back up. Not long after the holidays had ended, I had a sliding collision with a telephone pole on my way to my LVC Placement. As it all happened all I could think ofRead More →

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Around this time of year, most people find it fairly easy to slip into the so called “January blues.” The holidays are over, vacation time has run out, and all of the excitement of the New Year has subsided by now. For many parts of the country – definitely here in Chicago – the days are cold and darkness comes far too quickly each night. In addition to the settling back into the regular grind, this time can often be a fairly lonely one. I know many of us in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps community likely have made voyages home over the last few monthsRead More →

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Grey text box with words "Problematically Comfortable" in black

Ahna is a current LVCer in Washington, DC, serving at the Government Accountability Project. This is her story of and reflections on her experiences related to the Kavanaugh hearing and accompanying protests. This is post 3 of 3; her first post is here; second is here. ~~~~~ On October 6th, 2018 I was arrested on the steps of the Capitol. I was protesting the imminent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. When people found out, they asked what being arrested is like. They asked with a gleam in their eyes, a smile forming on their lips, and a palpable anticipation for the badass protest storyRead More →

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Before sitting down to write this blog post, one of my housemates pointed out that we were approaching our third month of being in LVC. I feel like while adjusting to the many transitions within the program, the days can feel long but the weeks blow by. To offer a glimpse at what Casa Romero in Chicago has been up to lately, I figured I’d follow Bex Klafter’s (Redeemer House) lead and provide a day in the life at my placement. My name is Levi Todd (photo above, 3rd from left) and I’m placed with Namarig Kram (photo above, right, front), another LVC volunteer, atRead More →

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When I decided to embark on an adventure that would take me from the East Coast to the Midwest, I knew I would encounter a lot of new things- a new city, a new job, new friends, new skills. The last of these, I hadn’t thought too much about prior to beginning my LVC year. Now that we’re finally settled into to our placements and our new home- and we’ve gotten used to the dark, creaky corners of this old convent- we’ve been able to get to know each other on a deeper level beyond where we went to college, how big or small ourRead More →

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