teacher
Day 30: Knowledge
Editor’s Note: Former DCSC volunteer Julia Pinto reexamines the gift of repeated and applied knowledge to her faith life, especially during this yearly season of Advent. She shares this through her lens as a teacher, while conversely contemplating and reflecting as a student who still has much to learn. There is a common phrase about there being a vast…
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Franciscan Friday: The Necessity of Presence
To highlight the service component of the Nonprofit Leadership Program (positions are currently available), Franciscan Fridays are currently featuring reflections from program associates about their experiences with weekly direct service. Enjoy other entries in this series: “Service through Faith: The Ultimate Act of Hope” by communications associate Michael Carlson “A Lesson in Perspective” by development associate…
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Welcome, Michael! New Communications Associate
Last week we welcomed a fourth domestic volunteer and third member of the communications team. Michael Carlson had been warned that there is nowhere he could go where God wouldn’t already be waiting. When he went to Bolivia, he found out just how true that is. Michael first met Franciscan Mission Service in Cochabama as…
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Encountering God in Prison
Missioner Lynn Myrick reflects on a time she and her husband, Joel Vaughn, were invited to an event at the El Abra, the maximum security prison for men, one of the couple’s ministry sites in Cochabamba, Bolivia. “Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of…
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National Volunteer Month Profile: Lynn in Bolivia
Today we highlight the other half of our couple serving in Bolivia: Lynn Myrick. Lynn was a college English professor for 28 years until she felt called to serve God in a new and different way. After earning her Masters in Theology from Vanderbilt Divinity School, she served as a college chaplain until May 2009 when…
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National Volunteer Month Profile: Joel in Bolivia
Husband and wife Joel Vaughn and Lynn Myrick are in their third year of service in Bolivia. Their ministries are primarily in education, using teaching English as a way to connect and be present with the poor. Today we highlight Joel’s current ministries in Cochabamba. Two days a week, Joel teaches English at Carcel Abra, a…
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“To be understood, as to understand” – Teacher learns a lesson in Guatemala
Today’s mission story about David LaDuca teaching in Guatemala (2004-2007) illustrates two important characteristics of FMS. The first is that we ask the community what they need — we do not try to force help on them, and we do not want to take their jobs away. The local community knows their needs better than…
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Prayers for Christmas: Witness of Love
“This Christmas I am grateful that the love God showed the world in sending His Incarnate Son has been shown again to me personally in the grace of His sending me to witness to that Love, Jesus Christ, in Africa.” – Sandra Bradford, missioner, Zambia Sandra serves with her husband Bryce through a partnership with the Province…
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Prayers for Christmas: More of God, Less of Us
John the Baptist spent his life announcing the coming of Christ. When Jesus was beginning his public ministry, John said “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). John had done his job in baptizing with water, and it was now time to step aside for the one who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.…
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Prayers for Christmas: Strength and Hope for Zambia
FMS lay missioners spend much of their time on mission in ministries of presence–cultivating relationships and connections in their host communities that change them as well as the people to whom they minister Through this journey, the prayers of the community can become the prayers of the missioner. Missioner and teacher Bryce Bradford shares his…
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Prayers for Christmas: Opportunity and Service
Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Matthew 9: 36-38). FMS missioner Joel Vaughn expresses gratitude for being one of these laborers in his prayer for Christmas. “This Christmas, I am thankful for…
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