Happy AmeriCorps Week

Day of the A, or how I began a life of volunteering

You might remember that once at a Campus Crusade for Christ¹ Weekend Conference during college, I wasn’t paying attention during the sermon when everyone sitting around me stood up. My daydreaming interrupted, I also stood. But my peers weren’t standing to sing a song or say a prayer. No. And as I stood, I saw that not everyone had risen from their seats. Why were only some of us standing?

We, the standing, that is to say, now, me, too, we were standing to commit one year of our life after college to some form of ministry.

Worried about my (lack of) holiness and confidence to ask friends, family, and strangers to support me financially while I preached the gospel that most of them were (at best) mostly tolerant of and hoping it was a phase I’d pass through quickly, a few weeks before graduation, I picked up a flyer from a table before the student union advertising A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. I’d work (yes, be paid!) for a concessionaire in a national park over the summer and on Sundays lead services in a few of the park’s campgrounds.

So, after college, I spent the summer on the coast of Maine in Acadia National Park. This is where I began drinking in earnest, because every night the other seasonal workers gathered around a bonfire, and when I refused their beer, they asked if it was a religious thing, and it wasn’t, it was a fear of losing my creative spark thing, it was a fear of becoming a rage monster thing, it was not having enough money to spend on beer thing, but I realized it was also a can’t talk about Jesus if everyone is always asking me why I’m not drinking thing, so I shrugged and accepted their liquid bread, and did my best to talk about the Bread of Life² when I could.

At a bar in Bar Harbor, one of my coworkers wore an AmeriCorps sweatshirt and said, “I love this sweatshirt, I’m glad I can wear it in a bar now,” and he told me all about his AmeriCorps experience. Also, like every serious volunteer, he struggled to answer whether volunteering helped or hurt those in need. It’s a question that after 3 years of AmeriCorps, 2 years of Peace Corps, and a year researching in grad school, I can still only answer through experience, in that, when I volunteer, it makes sense, seeing the benefit, hearing from those whose lives have been helped, this question seems ridiculous and maybe even a little dangerous. But, in a chair, at a desk, reading about volunteering, those writers trying to persuade me to focus on policy or elections, well, they’re incredibly compelling whenever I’m not in the midst of helping others.

But back to the bar! Listening to this guy talk about his AmeriCorps experience and envious of his sweatshirt, I signed up. I still owed God nine months of ministry and figured 1700 hours of community service (with 80 independently planned), well - that would count, right?³ Plus, in AmeriCorps NCCC I could work on a team, see the country, learn new skills, and earn a $5000⁴ education award upon completion to pay off my student loans.

That next year, my AmeriCorps NCCC team remodeled buildings at a non-profit camp in New Hampshire, built a house with Habitat for Humanity in Massachusetts, played with kids at a YMCA camp in Maryland, and supported a homelessness prevention center in New York. Also, disaster relief after flooding in Mississippi. And I learned how to really drink. (These do-gooders and their after-a-long-day-of-volunteering-boozy-celebrations!) I encountered others who wanted to make the world a better place for reasons completely different than my own and learned to appreciate that uniquely American philosophy - pragmatism. (For example, dedicated volunteers from lives where their home church, instead of uplifting them, had nearly killed them!) I visited all the great Northeast US cities! I was introduced to the field of “service-learning.” I met my wife! (Though, she didn’t realize it until 3 years later). I loved my AmeriCorps experience so much, I followed up my AmeriCorps NCCC year with a state AmeriCorps program in Austin, TX doing conservation work before returning to the Northeast to serve as a AmeriCorps NCCC Team Leader (that’s me in the green shirt!). My wife did a green-building (sort of like Habitat) State AmeriCorps program and then we embarked on a series of short term job/volunteer adventures, working as camp counselors, farmers, builders, before volunteering abroad with Peace Corps for two years.

So, yeah. Wow. I love AmeriCorps. Here’s me repairing mortar and showing off the “A.”

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The Great Substack Short Story Challenge 2 continues with

Read Write Repeat

Can't Get Much Worse - Chapter 9

I love this chapter! Ed connected the hotdog man and the thrown dog introduced in my first chapter! And he wrote a brilliant and hilarious POV.

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Also! I’ve been podcasted. Do I deserve it? Does my voice sound higher in real life than in my imagination? Do my eyes flash alien-like randomly? Always say yes!

Thanks to

matt

Check it out. He writes fun stories over at his Substack, Matt.

Please heart and share this post and then go do something amazing today.

1. Campus Crusade for Christ has changed their name to Cru on most campuses, I think to maybe not repel prospective students who rightly question a name that brings forth medieval images of the bloody historical crusades? Perhaps also to note, the organization can look different from campus to campus, with as many possible variations as there are Christian denominations.

2. Bread of Life being one of Jesus’ many nicknames. (I used to be a master at the gospel-sharing segue).

3. That counted, right, God?

4. The education award has since been increased to $6,500