catapult magazine

vol. 8, num. 20 :: 2009.10.16 — 2009.10.29

Every year in the U.S. and around the world, millions of people volunteer, adding up to billions of dollars’ worth of time. Service creates a form of exchange not based on monetary profit, but on other benefits for individuals and communities. So how do we choose where and when to volunteer?

Feature

Things I carry with me

by Ali Jacobs

A collection of thoughts gathered during time spent in Africa.

Editorial

Paid in hope and heartbreak

by Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma

Why I volunteer -- and create opportunities for others to do the same.

Articles

Volunteering as a way of life

by Lisa Van Dyk

A recent graduate explores the benefits of full-time volunteering through Mennonite Voluntary Service.

For whose glory?

by Sophie Blanc

On learning to see God's love in action, not ours.

Conversation: “In Kind”

by The *cino Community

Your opportunity to contribute thoughts about volunteering -- why you love it, why you hate it.

Gallery

Untitled

by Ali Jacobs

In case you missed it the first time

The cost of short-term missions

by JoAnn Van Engen

Americans spend millions of dollars each year on short-term mission trips to developing countries. Do these trips do more harm than good?

Gainful unemployment

by Peggy Deames

A resigned nurse learns to be still and value a new kind of productivity.

Dreamers vs. Dreamingers

by Adam Smit

A freelance development worker reports on the state of Africa and his own sense of hope.

Weaving the web

Mennonite Voluntary Service

Mennonite Mission Network

One of many opportunities to spend a year in service—check it out.

One family beating the recession by traveling the Americas

Fired For Now

A creative glass-half-full idea in response to getting laid off.

daily asterisk

Even in a country you know by heart
its hard to go the same way twice
the life of the going changes.
The chances change and make a new way.
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident. To get back before dark
is the art of going.

Wendell Berry
“Traveling at Home” from Traveling at Home

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