Morgan (second left), with Koinonia housemates It’s now been more two months since our new Volunteers began serving at their placement sites! For our Volunteers, these months have been  filled with new beginnings, uncomfortable amounts of vulnerability, realizing the importance of intentional budgeting (usually after it’s too late), and finding some peace in that the fact that they’re all doing it together. Volunteer Morgan Simmons is serving this year in Wilmington, DE at Lutheran Community Services and living in the Koinonia House. Morgan is one of a couple of our Volunteers focused on food insecurity, as this year she serves as a Food & Shelter Assistant,Read More →

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Tea (far right) with Food Justice Housemates! Teodora (Tea) Čakarmiš is an LVC17 Food Justice Volunteer serving at the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tea, an extremely unbiased source, shared that she is from “the number one place to visit in Eastern Europe” – Belgrade, Serbia. As a Food Justice LVC-er, Tea is the most interested in “understanding the intersections of environmental racism, on a local, but also on a global scale.” Tea shared her belief that the “plight that the ‘Global South’ faces due to climate change is… the most important issue that the international community will have to tackle in the future. Preservation ofRead More →

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Are you looking for new ways to give to LVC? LVC Alum ’10-’11 Anna Ernst thought of LVC as she planned her ordination service in September. Anna has been called to serve as Associate Pastor of Youth and Outreach at Epiphany Evangelical Lutheran Church in Elmhurst, IL and decided to share some of the offerings at her ordination service with LVC. When we asked why Anna decided to give to LVC, she wrote: “As an LVC Volunteer, I served as a Community Outreach Associate in two Lutheran congregations in Omaha, NE.  My grandfather was a pastor and I grew up being very active in church,Read More →

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Lucas (left) at Trinity on their church work day Although the trail from Yucaipa, California to Omaha, Nebraska seems to be a long one, new Volunteer Lucas Shurson seems to have made the transition well (probably thanks to spending four years developing some Midwestern charm at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN). For his year with LVC, Lucas will be serving Trinity Lutheran Church in Omaha as a Community Connector. As the church’s Community Connector, Lucas’ role is assisting the church’s outreach programs – helping run a couple long-standing outreach programs like Trinity Reads, a partnership program with six different Omaha elementary schools that distributes books to schools,Read More →

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At the beginning of August, 86 volunteers, 10 staff, and 11 board members gathered in Chicago at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for five days of celebration and challenges at our annual Nation Orientation. The theme of National Orientation this year was “Upholding Commitment to Our Internal Work for the Sake of Community.” The five day stay in Chicago was filled with presentations and trainings for the Volunteers – from conflict resolution training and anti-racism training to self-care conversations and preparation for journey conversations – each hour was carefully planned to prepare and challenge Volunteers before their LVC year began.     TheRead More →

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