A letter from Doug and Elaine Baker in Northern Ireland
November 2010
“He’s a real cracker!” That was the exuberant response I got when I bumped into an elder from a North Belfast congregation and asked him how he was finding their new PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer (YAV). In fact, I have been getting similar enthusiastic comments, phone calls and e-mails from lots of the congregations and community projects in which the current group of YAVs are serving. What is even better is that I am also getting positive comments from the YAVs about how much they are enjoying their placements and learning from them. After 17 years of placing Young Adult Volunteers I can honestly say that most often it turns out to be a real win-win situation. The time, skills, energy, personal faith stories and struggles — even the vulnerability — they contribute is a great gift to the places where they serve. And the way in which those congregations and projects embrace the volunteers and expose them to new opportunities for growth is a very profound gift for the YAVs.
Most of those who apply to serve in Northern Ireland are attracted to the prospect of being involved with children’s and youth ministry — one of the staples of our placements. However, the fascinating thing that is already emerging with this year’s group is how many of them are finding real satisfaction in or discovering new skills for other areas of ministry in which they have suddenly found themselves landed.
2010-11 Young Adult Volunteers in Northern Ireland: From left Miriam Foltz, Moses Dimmock, Allison Geeslin, Edward Lewis, Joan Lanigan and Adrienne Stanley.
John Killian had been youth director at Overlook Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama, before becoming a YAV. Leading a weekly youth fellowship in another culture was still a big step. But finding himself responsible for preparing a meal and planning a weekly program for a women’s group at WAVE, a trauma center for those bereaved through the conflict here, has been a challenge on a whole different scale.
Edward Lewis came to Northern Ireland five years ago with his youth group from Preston Hollow in Dallas. Ever since then he has been committed to returning and working with youth in this context. He is doing that and doing it well. But he has also become involved in Beautiful Feet, a ministry to adults who sleep rough on Belfast’s streets.
Miriam Foltz, from Belleville, Illinois, knew that one of things East Belfast Mission wanted her to do was help get youth involved in a music group for worship. But she told me this week that Friendship Circle, where she plays old-time hymns on the piano for elderly women has become one of the highlights of her week.
Joan Lanigan, from West Nottingham Presbyterian Church in Port Deposit, Maryland, has been a sports enthusiast and instructor with younger youth for many years. She is a bundle of energy, raring to roll up her sleeves for physical work. Part of each week now she finds herself sitting calmly chatting one-on-one as she makes pastoral visits with those who are largely housebound — and enjoys it immensely.
Growing up, Allison Geeslin, from Mount Vernon, Washington, has worked in about every Christian education role you can imagine with children and youth in the churches where her parents have served. Now she is surprised to find herself invited into a large public secondary school each week as part of a team responsible for leading the Scripture Union Club and allowed to build relationships in that setting with mostly unchurched youth.
Moses Dimmock has a real interest in early-years learning. Assisting with the nursery and after-school programs at the 174 Trust has, therefore, come fairly naturally. For a soccer whiz kid, so has supervising hours of “football”: for slightly older boys. But this week when he and I were discussing his role with the minster at Glengormley Presbyterian, where he also serves, I could tell that helping serve tea for the elderly women’s fellowship meeting — and accepting the greeting hug of one particular member — was both a more challenging and surprisingly positive experience.
Perhaps one of the most challenging and interesting areas for Adrienne Stanley, from Westminster in Dallas, Texas, has been learning the ins and outs of working in collaboration with other churches, the local primary school, and the Community Centre in responding to the needs of a low-income housing development near Garnerville Presbyterian Church, to which she has been assigned.
YAVs and Site Coordinator Doug Baker at an orientation session for their service in Northern Ireland.
I encourage you to follow the stories of these seven Young Adult Volunteers as they continue to discover all of the different ways God leads them into service and learning this year. You can find their letters and blogs on the Letters from Young Adult Volunteers page.
Since 1993, 94 YAVs have served in Northern Ireland. More than 20 of them are now ordained minsters. Another 25 are currently in seminary or have finished and are seeking calls. Many others are serving with community projects, in teaching and as lay leaders in local congregations. In September I was privileged to preach in the church where one is associate pastor for mission and also to co-lead a workshop at the Mission Connections Conference in Louisville with another, Rob Moore, who is now on the Equipping for Mission Involvement team of our General Assembly World Mission staff.
Please pray for all of these YAVS — this year’s as they cope with the new challenges thrown at them, those who are now using their YAV experience to inform important ministries in diverse settings and those who are still in the process of discovering where God’s call and their particular gifts may lead them. And think carefully about who you know and will encourage to apply as a YAV this year or in the years to come.
Faithfully yours,
Doug and Elaine Baker
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 190
