Email: Steve Gillard

Greetings Friends and Family!

So much has happened since the last time I sent out a newsletter: We have experienced an amazing cultural festival known as the “Day of the Dead,” I joined our church’s gospel music choir, we have all become more involved and confident in our volunteer placements and also involved in activities around the city. It has been nice to have a routine with which to become familiar and that we can use to draw deeper meaning from our weekly activities. The dangerous sibling of routine, however, is complacency, so it is important to be ever conscious of continually putting ourselves outside our comfort zones during our daily routines.
   
Life has been really great in Tucson, but I am being forced already to make decisions about where I will be next year. It feels like I just landed at the airport and met my housemates yesterday, but the reality is that applications for graduate schools are often due at the end of December. A fairly rapid discernment process has had to occur over the past couple weeks. It would be easy for this situation to be stressful, but my experiences at my volunteer placement have proved to be valuable in setting up a perspective from which to view the situation.

My discernment process thus far has involved choosing between getting a salaried job, doing another YAV year, going to seminary, or pursuing a master’s in biology (most likely conservation ecology). The other week I was assigned to a job in a trailer park. The woman who owns the trailer is 20 and has three kids with no father figure. The water and gas to her home had been shut off, the roof was leaking, there were holes in the floor, and she had no income or health insurance. When my partner and I walked into the trailer for the first time her three kids were sitting on the sofa in a living room that contained nothing else except a clock on the wall. I was depressed when I left at the end of the day because I was struck by the stark difference between her experience and mine. This woman is two years younger than I am, yet has much of the rest of her life planned for her already. In all likelihood the lives of her kids are already heading down certain paths that lack opportunity. My decisions right now consist of four wonderful options.

I’m not saying that the choices that I make about my future are unimportant. Not at all. But I am saying that I have no right to be stressed about these decisions. Rather, I should be joyful because I realize that these options are privileges. I also realize that a huge factor in why I have these privileges is that I was born into a privileged situation. With this perspective also comes a strong invitation to keep this privilege in mind—and those who don’t have it—when making a decision of what path to pursue. Part of my service to God has to be serving His marginalized children and combating the causes of their marginalization. Application deadlines are coming up soon enough, so I guess we’ll see what happens. What a blessing to have so many friends and so much family to send updates to! I love hearing updates from you all.

By Christ’s grace,

Steve Gillard

Please keep the young adult volunteers and the communities they serve around the world in your prayers.  If you’re interested in serving as a young adult volunteer or know some one who is please visit the PC(USA)'s special YAV Web site. If you’d like to support young adult volunteers with financial gift please make tax deductible checks out to:

St Mark's Presbyterian Church
("YAV support" in memo line)
3809 E. 3rd Street
Tucson AZ, 85716

If you want to see a more consistent journal you can look at my blog.

Blessings on you!

Steve Gillard