It’s a new year, and JVC Northwest has a new look!
Check out our new website, jvcnorthwest.org with new featured stories, a video about JV life, and updates on news and events.
Our blog is now a part of our website; for all future blog updates please visit: jvcnorthwest.org/blog
July
The Portland Mac JV community gathered for a photo at the JV Farewell BBQ with their support people and area director, Julia.
August
Camp Adams welcomed us after back for another wonderful week of JV Orientation!
September
’82-83 Seattle FJVs watch a slideshow at their reunion of JV memories.
Fr. Jack Morris, S.J.
October
November
41 former volunteers gather for a big group photo!
December
’12-13 JV Claire Smith shares a reflection on waiting in the Advent Season.
JVC Northwest takes a look back at 2012, a year full of service, celebration, and community!
January
’11-12 JV AmeriCorps members Eddie, Maggie, and Cole above an ivy-infested hillside. Ivy is an invasive species in Oregon and prohibits the growth of native plants. The day of service in Portland was designed to rip up the ivy for future native plantings.
February
The 2011-2012 Alaska JVs congregate at the Shrine of St. Therese in Juneau for their winter retreat.
March
April
The Sunday morning garden party brunch at Seattle University brought together 250 people from the JVC Northwest community.
May
The Portland JVC Northwest community gathers for a potluck at St. Andrew’s Parish after mass celebrated by Fr. John Whitney, S.J.
June
Check back on Monday, Dec 31 for the remainder of 2012 year in review!
This time of year, the JVC Northwest office receives Christmas cheer from all around the Northwest when JV communities send their creative, and often humorous, Christmas cards to our office. Here’s a sample from all over the region. Christmas blessings to all!
Wenatchee JVs
Anchorage JVs
Seattle Cherry Abbey JVs
Gresham JVs
Hays JVs
Portland Mac JVs
Missoula JVs
Omak JVs
Seattle Mercy JVs
Yakima JVs
JVs remind us that sometimes, building community can be as simple as building a snowman.
“the prophet of the Most High,
for you’ll go before our God, to prepare
the way for the Promised One…
Such is the tender mercy of our God,
who from on high
will bring the Rising Sun to visit us,
to give light to those who live
in darkness and the shadow of death
and to guide our feet
into the way of peace.”
– Luke 1:76, 78-79
Wishing you and your family a Christmas season filled with community, hope, love, and joy.
From all of us at JVC Northwest!
Danielle Bastien, Area Director for Alaska, shares a bit about the selection process of our partner agencies for the 2013-2014 JV year.
Even though 2014 sounds far away, around this time each year, area directors begin the process of selecting partner agencies for the following year of service. No matter how long JVC Northwest has partnered with an agency, each agency must reapply to have a JV each year. After receiving the partner agency applications, the area director assigned to that locale reads through the applications. And so begins a series of meetings in which the agencies for the following year are chosen by consensus among the area directors. Meeting compelling needs in a locale, quality of supervision and mentoring, amount of training and orientation available, and meaningful duties and responsibilities for the JV position are all factors in deciding which agencies to accept.
Pretty Eagle School in St. Xavier, MT is one of our current partner agencies where four JV AmeriCorps members serve in the role of Academic Support.
This may seem like a dry process, but I find it really exciting. It’s amazing to hear about the wonderful work done by agencies throughout the Northwest and to learn about the roles Jesuit Volunteers play in working toward social and ecological justice. Hearing about each agency when we select them in December also helps later in the process of matching JV applicants to positions for which they interview during the spring.
While partner agency selections are not finalized, it’s energizing to think that over the next few months, the agency will interview a JV for the next service year, and come August a JV will join the team of an agency to continue their on-going justice work. Most of all, selecting agencies is a tangible way to show the impact that JVC Northwest has by providing supportive and transforming experiences for JVs and serving vulnerable populations and ecosystems throughout the Northwest.
Recruiter, Ian Roeber, shares an adventure from his semester of traveling around the country while recruiting for JVC Northwest:
[Note: I do not in any way want to equate my experience to those truly affected by Hurricane Sandy. This reflection stems only from what I saw and experienced away from the epicenter of the storm.]
The true grace of being the recruiter for JVC Northwest lies in the relationships I am able to nurture and create throughout my travels. Students, faculty, staff, and hosts welcome me into their world, and I do my best to welcome them into mine. However, in order to meet these individuals and mutually share our experiences, I have to first plan everything, I mean everything.
Visiting nearly thirty schools in the span of a few months has required more emails than my hands have ever previously typed. I use not one, but two cell phones to coordinate car rentals, flights, class presentations, tables, fairs, etc. You name it, and I plan it. This did not come naturally to me and I have learned a great deal about the amount of work it takes to spread the good news of JVC Northwest. However, over a month ago, I learned one very distinct truth about plans: They change.
This became undeniably evident as Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the East Coast, and my travels to Connecticut and New York became plans of the past. Boston, where I had been recruiting prior to the storm, was where I stayed for the next week, and I found myself wondering how I could maintain some sense of normality in a place very far from the JVC Northwest office on North Williams Avenue in Portland, Oregon. After becoming acclimated to moving across the country in rapid fashion during the past months, I suddenly was stopped. No travel, no plans. What in the world was I going to do?
With former JVs now in Boston, Ian participates in a “work party” while waiting out the storm.
That question was quickly answered when I woke Sunday morning expecting to hear the howling wind and driving rain, but instead, I heard laughter in the living room. I had been staying with a former JV housemate from my community in Juneau, Alaska during my time in Boston, who also happened to live with two other former JVs. Another Juneau housemate lived nearby, being visited by yet another of our Juneau community members who had flown in for the weekend. With only a few missing community members from our Juneau house, I woke to see them all sitting in the living room watching “The Goonies.” From that moment on I didn’t need to question what I was going to do. We did work. We made phone calls to loved ones. We watched movies. We even went grocery shopping like we did together in Juneau. But most importantly, we were “we” for those few days. Much like our days as Jesuit Volunteers, we were a community.
That week, it was obvious that “community” is not simply a value that we ponder as Jesuit Volunteers. Rather, it is a necessary part of our human experience. Those few days of laughter, support, and care transformed our experience of, what could have been, a very uncertain week. And we weren’t the only ones that found the support of a community that week. We watched plenty of stories that detailed people saving others from floods, repairing homes, cooking for one another; more glimpses of some innate nature we have to come together in uncertain times. This was a week during which I learned one more important aspect about the work we do at JVC Northwest: Plans change, but our need for community doesn’t.
Current JV Claire Smith (Gresham, OR ’12-13) shared a reflection with the Portland JVC Northwest community Tuesday evening at our annual Advent Gathering. The following paragraphs are an excerpt, for the rest of the reflection, click here to download: Advent means waiting-Claire Smith Reflection
JV Claire Smith (Gresham, OR ’12-13) shares her reflection at the Advent Gathering
As a child, I must confess, Advent frustrated me. I remember hearing the song “Oh come, oh come Emmanuel” far too many times – just get here, already! I wanted to get to the good songs like “Joy to the World” and “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.” I loved lighting the blue candles on our wreath, but I was impatient to light the tall, red one in the middle. Also, my parents are sticklers with our manger scene, not putting the baby Jesus in until Christmas Eve and keeping the three Wise Men out until Epiphany . . . and it was hard for me to play pretend with the figurines while the main character was missing. My childhood impatience made the waiting of Advent difficult; the looking forward to Christmas was great, but it was hard to be content.
Since then, my attention span has grown; my ability to appreciate anticipation has increased. I understand why waiting is important; how the build-up of the wait can be as sweet as the arrival – as when a loved-one visits; how waiting can be a ritual that brings preparation – like taking a moment of reflection before beginning a spirituality night; how it is an unavoidable part of life – waiting in line, waiting to speak your turn, waiting until the tomatoes are ripe…
But I wonder if I am actually any better at Advent now?
Waiting, to me, can still be frustrating. I just want this community to be strong, already! I want to hurry up and end oppression. I’m tired of waiting for sustainability to be the norm instead of a notable exception. Waiting makes me recognize the limitations of my control. And it is often more difficult than taking action…
As I am coming to understand Advent this year, it is about slowing down enough to wait and see the presence of God with us. It is not a stagnant, passive waiting; not an excuse for apathy or inaction. It is an active waiting. An expectation. In Spanish, the word for “to wait” means simultaneously “wait,” “hope,” and “expect” – esperar. Three meanings layered into one whispering verb. It is an active stillness. It is perhaps paying attention as the internal pot boils over. To see what happens and to make an empty space – an inner capacity for peace – that can be filled with less turbulent waters of God’s presence.
The JVC Northwest Staff wishes you a . . .
May you find peace and joy in this season of hopeful expectation!
Today is #GivingTuesday, a nationwide movement to encourage philanthropy and generosity during this holiday season. We are grateful to those who have already donated to JVC Northwest in honor of #GivingTuesday and encourage you to do the same and donate now!
JV AmeriCorps Member Sean McEvoy (Portland, OR ’11-12) serves with Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.
Giving to JVC Northwest this #GivingTuesday will support the 140 JVs currently serving around the Northwest and the 120,000 individuals they serve.
JVC Northwest Live 