As I prepared my 1 week reminder email for LVC applicants today, I was reminded that last year at this time, I sent out a link to a conversation with 2 LVC staff & a current Volunteer, facilitated by NationSwell.

NationSwell contacted us as they were holding conversations with various service year programs, and they were excited to talk with an org connecting spirituality and service. As I rewatched it, I thought “WOW – we do really awesome stuff, and it does take a community to share all that LVC is up to.”

I also appreciate how articulate I was in many of my answers! Watching it also got me missing Hierald Osorto, our former LVC National Program Director, and Drew Bongiovanni, an LVC alum who is doing some awesome things at Vanderbilt Divinity School. But, I guess that is what service year programs are all about – welcoming, forming, shaping and sending in to the world. We are dynamic organizations, and change is a constant state of being!

I give thanks for all of our alumni who are engaged in amazing social justice work around the world, rooted in their spiritual traditions, transforming and being transformed by the relationships around them. And, of course, I included the video again in this year’s email.