wfn.org | Service Adventurers help, learn

[BethAH <BethAH@mbm.org>]

May 23, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

May 23, 2001

Service Adventurers help, learn from developmentally disabled

Grant Rissler is serving through Mennonite Voluntary Service as a
writer and photographer.  After spending a year as intern at the
Mennonite Central Committee United Nations office in Manhattan,
he is traveling for five months by bus to 20 other MVS and
Short-Term Mission sites, gathering the stories and experiences
of other volunteers and communities.  A weekly column by Grant
can be found on the web at www.MBM.org.

LETHBRIDGE, Alberta (CHM/MBM) – Since the inception of the
Service Adventure unit three years ago in this small city on the
Canadian plains, participants have worked alongside people with
developmental disabilities, both serving and learning.

The third group of participants to follow a call to serve in this
place follows that tradition.

“I’ve always been interested in working with some kind of social
work, either mentally handicapped or foster kids,” said Butch
Duffy, a Service Adventurer from Davidsville, Pa., who works
part-time at L’Arche.  L’Arche is an organization dedicated to
helping developmentally disabled people become more integral
parts of society through appropriate work assignments, outings,
and a communal living arrangement.

Duffy says his decision to serve others is partly a result of his
experience as a child.  “Since I was 6, I’ve been in foster
homes, so I kind of feel called to it.”

Melody Amstutz, Duffy’s unit mate from Orrville, Ohio, also works
with L’Arche, providing services for her house’s core members,
ranging from keeping accounts of their money to playing board
games with them.

Michelle Jantzi, a unit mate from Waterloo, Ontario, also works
with developmentally disabled people at the Rehoboth Christian
Association’s Coaldale Vocational Site.  Rehoboth runs a
greenhouse and woodshop, employing people with developmental
disabilities (clients) and pairing them with professional staff
and volunteers in order to work toward the individual goals of
the clients.

The goal of Rehoboth is to “make room for people with
developmental disabilities,” Jantzi said.  “All the clients
working there are adults and are treated as such.

“The staff there really care about what they’re doing and about
the clients they’re working with,” Jantzi continued.  “The goal
for the most part is to help these people become as independent
as possible in whatever independence means for them.  The clients
are a priority, making sure their skills are used and that they
enjoy what they’re doing.”

All three say they have learned through serving and from those
they serve.

“I think I understand [developmentally] disabled people more
[now],” Duffy said.  “From what I’ve seen in the past, not too
many people treat them like people.  But everybody is a human and
they should be treated like humans.”

The job, Jantzi said, is “a lot of work and a lot of fun.  You
have a lot of opportunities to build strong relationships with
clients and staff.  You get to build on skills you already have,
whether it’s people skills, or working in the greenhouse, or
trying to be a peer mentor.”

The interactions have also ingrained some lessons of life.  “When
I come, one of the first things I ask [the core members] is, ‘How
are you doing?’” Duffy said.  “One of the things you learn from
L’Arche is that they really tell you.  I’ve learned that it’s
good to really express what you’re feeling.”

But serving the residents of L’Arche also demands sacrifices when
it comes to personal schedules and unit life.

“It’s pretty demanding,” Amstutz said.  “It’s like a family.  You
do what’s needed.  A lot of the time it’s priorities.  My
priority is often here [at L’Arche] because they need the help.
At the Service Adventure house, they can fend for themselves,
they can walk, they can get what they need.”

While working with the developmentally disabled is draining, for
the volunteers, it is also a source of inspiration.

“I look for the good things,” Amstutz said.  “What keeps me going
are the smiles of the core members, the ways they express their
appreciation.”

“You see the effect you have on different people,” Jantzi said.
“There are clients where I smile and then they smile and I smile
bigger.  It’s the power of seeing a face brighten up when you
say, ‘Good morning,’ and you realize that they care about you,
too.”

Service Adventure provides post-high-school young adults with a
short-term adventure in service, learning and spiritual growth.
Living in a household with other young adults, Service Adventure
participants serve as volunteers in a variety of community
service organizations.   As participants live in a household,
they test possible career interests, participate in the life of a
Mennonite congregation and engage in group study of the Bible,
social issues and areas of personal and spiritual growth under
the guidance of a unit leader.

Begun in 1989, Service Adventure units now operate in Albany,
Ore.; Albuquerque, N. M.; Anchorage, Alaska; Champaign, Ill.;
Johnstown, Pa.; Lebanon, Ore.; Lethbridge, Alberta; Philippi,
W.Va.; Raleigh, N.C.; and South Bend, Ind.

Service Adventure is a joint program of Mennonite Board of
Missions (Mennonite Church) and the Commission on Home Ministries
(General Conference Mennonite Church).

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Grant E. Rissler       PHOTOS AVAILABLE