 Young Adults Serve in Mission Through the Global Justice Volunteers Program |
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“I have trusted the words of Apostle Paul in Hebrews 10:23 [as] I have experienced and nurtured the dream of a future with more dignity, which is more just, for my nation and for the world. ‘Let us hold unswerving to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful,’” Diana Fernandes dos Santos reflected in her application to participate in the Global Justice Volunteers program. After receiving information on the program in her hometown of Bahia, Brazil, Fernandes saw her participation in the Global Justice Volunteers program as an opportunity to continue her commitment to understanding, and contributing to, the work for a just world. For the next 2 months, Fernandes, along with 8 other young adults, will volunteer at various sites around the world as part of the General Board of Global Ministries’ Global Justice Volunteers program (GJV). Through the GJV program, young adults ages 18-25 travel in teams of 2-4 and, for a period of approximately 2.5 months, live and work alongside people who are working for change in their communities, exploring the links between faith and justice. In August, they will return to their home communities and carry their experience as GJVs with them into their current and future work. Diana is volunteering with two other young adults with Accion Medica Cristiana (AMC) in Nicaragua, providing support to AMC’s work with communities to identify health needs and to support community initiatives to address these health needs. Twenty-three year old Fernandes is certainly not new to mission work. From 2000 - 2002, she served as the President of the Youth Federation for the Northeast region of Brazil. In this capacity, she has worked to build networks amongst young people in the region, as well as to connect with other Christian young adults throughout Latin America. Participating in the GJV program is an extension of the many ways she has already been committed to acting out her faith. Through the Global Justice Volunteers program, Diana hopes “to learn how God is working in the life of each person and to understand the true sense of the words MISSION and GOSPEL.” Jerimey “J.J.” Wicke, a Senior at the University of Texas-Pan American, is serving as a Global Justice Volunteer with a South African affiliate of the World Student Christian Federation, the Uniting Christian Students’ Association (USCA). J.J. learned about the GJV program through his campus ministry. Actively involved in the United Methodist Campus Ministry of the Rio Grande Valley, Wicke serves as a Peer-minister at South Texas Community College. During his time in South Africa, J.J. is participating in UCSA’s Community Year program. Through the Community Year Program, young adults from varying backgrounds in South Africa live together and volunteer together for one year, discussing and addressing challenges their community is facing, including issues related to racism, HIV/AIDS, and economic justice. J.J. and his GJV team will live and volunteer with these young adults for 2 months, learning from the ways that young people in South Africa are actively engaged in their communities. They will also be attending the second South African Christian Leadership Assembly, which will take place in July in Johannesburg. J.J. is looking forward to “an opportunity to build relationships with people by doing the justice work that God calls us to do. I am excited about this opportunity God has provided me and I look forward to sharing my experiences with others.” Cara Newhouse had wanted to participate in the Global Justice Volunteers program for several years, but this was the first time she was able to commit the three months to the program. Cara applied to the Global Justice Volunteers program and is now serving as a Global Justice Volunteer in Brazil, with the Sao Gabriel Community Center. Cara is excited about the opportunity to “be in community with others who have dedicated their lives to serving God and to better understand what that means.” Cara is a student at Indiana University, studying Sociology and French, while looking ahead to a possible career in full-time ministry. “In the opportunities I have been involved in so far, I continue to grow and learn in each situation…I am hoping that in working with the Global Justice Volunteers program, I might have a chance to better discern my calling and the direction my work will take.”
For more information on the Global Justice Volunteers program, visit the website at: http://gbgm-umc.org/vim or call (212) 870-3825.
Date posted: Jun 18, 2003 |
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