REFLECTIONS

Immokalee, Florida
I have grown both in the community I served and the community I made up at home.  The experience has changed me in ways that I did not even perceive at first, as it happened slowly.  It is important to get to know yourself along the journey and to communicate with others and with yourself.  I have grown greatly in my ability to work and live with others and in being able to look inward and reflect on myself, my feelings, and my actions.
	Tom Albani
	2007-2008 Immokalee volunteer
Cleveland, Ohio
I was blessed to be part of a supportive community both at school and with my housemate during this year of service and in with my time with the Sisters of the Humility of Mary.   The more time I spent volunteering, the more confident I became , more open to others and more integrated in the  school community. Encouragement from others helped me grow into the individual I am today.
	Rebecca Levis
	2003-2005 Cleveland volunteer
Villa Maria, Pennsylvania
I honestly feel I have learned so much this year. When I started my volunteer time I had absolutely no experience in gardening. I have learned so much about the planting, weeding and the wonderful fruits of my labor. I can say that I have come to appreciate and understand humility: the humus, the soil, the earth. All are God¹s gifts to us and we must protect them.
	Kathy Houghtell Abramowski
	2004-2005 Villa Maria volunteer
Santiago, Chile
Living in Chile and working with the women¹s community of Casa Ursulina was a powerful testimony of faith, feminism, and earth in action for me.  It changed my life in ways far different from those that I had expected.  I found God in the stories of children I taught in school- some filled with sadness over troubled homes and financial struggles, others filled with joy over secret crushes or new baby sisters.  I found God huddled around fires, harmonious and strong, singing revolutionary songs, sipping on sweet wine with strawberries.  Through the wrinkled, aged, fingers of a woman who has seen it all, God was expertly woven and tucked into the yarn of scarves and shawls, guaranteeing bread for tomorrow and ease of mind for today.  God grew in the bodies of courageous, young teenage girls until they could no longer hold God in and opened up to bear their miracles to the world, kicking and crying. .  . but breathing and ready for life.  God was in our gardens and flowers, in the fruit from the market and hiding in the Andes mountains, waiting to be discovered.  I say it that way, waiting to be discovered, but really, it was God who found me.  I couldn't have avoided it.  In stories and tears, in belly dance and laughter, gazing back at me from the ocean or laughing at me as I struggled to navigate the mountains, God found me in Chile and I can¹t remember when I've felt so blessed.
Betsy Lehman
2005-2007
Miami, Florida
Long term service is a wonderful thing.  It is a privilege that I was able to have after college and I always considered it that way.  It was a formative year for me and I enjoyed it because I was constantly learning about people, myself included. Some of the blessings during my year were building a community of friends and support with other volunteers and the HM sisters and being placed in an environment entirely out of my element - and learning to find my place in that environment.
	Abby Bianchi
	2007 - 2008 Miami volunteer

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