No images? Click here Fall 2021 IVEP welcome: Despite many challenges, we continueMCC photo/Brenda Burkholder It’s been over a year since our last IVEP newsletter, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been idle. As COVID-19 hit the U.S. in early 2020, it affected the ability of our 34 IVEPers to go to work, attend retreats and return home. Some people were able to go home early while others needed to stay on assignment several months longer until a flight was available. By October 2020, the final IVEPer left her assignment. Many thanks to those supervisors and hosts who needed to be creative and gracious in their work and living situations — we all learned more about being flexible than we wanted to. Andrea Geiser Leaman, IVEP Coordinator Participant insight: Fulfilling my calling Photo/Emma Eitzen I would like to begin by sharing a little about how I came to participate in the IVEP program. In Mexico, I was studying international business because my calling is to help financially support missionaries. To accomplish this, my dream is to have a company where I can send handicrafts from Mexico to all parts of the world, thus fulfilling my calling and helping the artisans of my country. For some years, God had put in my heart to leave my country to learn and develop more tools focused on what I want to achieve. It’s been years of prayer and searching for the best way to achieve this. A friend told me one day about the call to participate in IVEP this year 2021–2022, which was the answer to what I was looking for. I started my application and in this whole process I could see the hand of God with me step by step. After a series of events that only He could have achieved, I finally got here. Miguel Angel Neri Carbot, IVEP Participant 2021-2022 Host insight: Join us in the kitchenPhoto/Amy Hofer Vetch When I heard Freeman Academy was looking to have an IVEPer for a year, the information went in one ear and out the other. The staff had talked about this before but it did not pan out, so I did not give it another thought. When the subject came up again and it looked like things were falling into place, our administrator mentioned the IVEPer would need a place to call home as well. Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. My husband and I had agreed to host Juliet from Bangladesh, but her arrival was delayed several times, to the point we thought she just would not be able to come to the U.S. Amy Hofer Vetch, IVEP Host 2021-2022 Partner insight: The goal is not a perfect year Photo/Elizabeth Galik In 2018, our family of six moved to Puerto Rico to attend and teach at a small, local bilingual elementary school for the year. While I knew it would be challenging for my children to adjust, I had thought my own cultural transition would be fairly smooth. I had visited the island several times and, for the last 10 years, our best friends in our community in Chicago had been from that culture. It wasn’t quite that simple. I felt like I was confused for the first three months straight. Spanish on the island is fast. My fledgling language knowledge couldn’t keep up, but I had at least somewhat anticipated that difficulty. The greater challenges were the nuances of human interactions. Anything that went unsaid, I missed
entirely. Without knowing the rhythm of life, I was constantly walking into situations I never saw coming. People were constantly telling me, “Tranquila.” (I’m still not 100 per cent sure that’s the right ending to that verb.) Relax. Don’t worry. Apparently, my stress was just slightly visible. Alumni insight: IVEP year set me on the right trackPhoto/Hedzer de Haan Dear MCC friends all over the world, Elizabet Geijlvoet from Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, lived and worked in Goshen & Elkhart, Indiana and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 1995-1996 East Coast and Central States IVEPers with regional coordinators during retreat in Harrisonburg, Virginia Some Great Lakes IVEPers meeting together at Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale in Goshen, Indiana Ayibongwe Ncube (Zimbabwe) with her host mother Annelies Rowell and host sister Liliana Rowell Stefanny Sierra Mendoza (Colombia) with her colleagues at Nearly New Thrift Shop during art night event The Who's Who of IVEP IVEP U.S. National Coordinator andreageiserleaman@mcc.orgCentral States abbyendashaw@mcc.orgEast Coast caitlinjones@mcc.orgGreat Lakes brookestrayer@mcc.orgWest Coast adelaidahernandez@mcc.orgIt is a peace program that works, not in a big sweep, but one small ripple at a time, each ripple enlarging with every expanding circle. – Doreen Harms (IVEP administrator 1949-51, 1955-58, 1968-91) |