In the days and weeks following Hurricane Harvey, St. John the Divine mobilized over 600 parishioners to serve the community and assist residents in cleanup and relief efforts. SJD has developed ongoing partnerships with other local organizations as we continue the work of disaster recovery, including World Vision, Faith Memorial Baptist Church in Houston’s Fifth Ward, and long-time partner Agape Development in the Third Ward.

St. John’s also recognizes the call felt by mission teams to serve in Houston. We are dedicating a portion of our facilities for dormitory use to house incoming teams from around the country who will be coming here to aid residents in their efforts to clean up and rebuild. SJD is partnering in this effort with Led2Serve, a non-profit organization which specializes in equipping, inspiring, and mobilizing mission teams. Led2Serve will offer customized Service Journeys to student and adult teams who will undertake meaningful community projects in Houston, using St. John the Divine as their ‘home base’.

As we prepare our facilities, mission teams are already forming. The first Led2Serve team arrived in Houston this week and are staying in a KOA campground on Lake Conroe. The 20-person team includes 12 young men from a Catholic military high school in Kansas, a single woman and a married couple and their three children from Orlando, and two brothers from Boston. Don Callender, SJD’s Mission Team Hosting Coordinator, worked with the team members from Orlando and Boston on Tuesday, painting the interior of a home that the Agape Repair Team rebuilt after it was destroyed by fire.

“We had three of the owner’s family members working with us: the niece, who did graduate work in political science at UH; her husband, who was a youth minister at Trinity Lutheran Church before retiring; and his brother-in-law who taught 8th grade history in his most recent career,” Don explained. “The mom and dad and their three kids from Orlando do a Thanksgiving trip annually, working Monday – Wednesday on a project like this, packing and serving food for those in need on Thursday morning, and then celebrating Thanksgiving together with the whole group that night. The father is an Opthalmic surgeon. One daughter is a tennis player, the other is a dancer. Their younger brother is still focused on annoying his big sisters. One of the brothers from Boston wants to be a Forest Ranger, the other is leaning toward marketing and graphic design.”

The team from Kansas, pictured below, is from St. John’s Military School in Salina, Kansas. The school was started by an Episcopal bishop in 1887. They spent the day working with the Agape repair team removing a roof from another house in the area.

St. John the Divine volunteers continue to serve our neighbors who were impacted by Harvey, providing pastoral care through the Shepherds program, financial assistance through the Harvey Relief Fund, and assistance with rebuilding and recovery through volunteer work teams. Our partnership with Led2Serve will extend our reach into the community through the long-term clean-up and rebuilding of our city, and help us to mobilize even more people to change lives for God in Christ.

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Led2Serve was created to equip, inspire and mobilize people to serve others in their local communities, throughout the United States, and in several regions of Costa Rica. It was created for any person, regardless of age, gender, faith, skill level, identity, or belief that wants to join others in a service related experience and serve in a variety of meaningful ways. Led2Serve was created after their founder realized that not everyone feels welcome to go and serve others across the country or the world.

Their mission is to provide life-changing service experiences for individuals, couples, families or groups through one of three kinds of Journeys. The Service Learning Journey is designed for those who desire an educational experience linked with service. The Service Mission, is for those with in a faith foundation who want to serve in community together. And the third is their Service Adventures. This last journey combines service to others with more adventurous activities such as zip-lining, snorkeling, hiking or white-water rafting. Below is our interview with Vanessa Puleo, the Founder and Executive Director at Led2Serve:

Q: You’ve recently announced two new Service Journeys, tell us more?

A: This past spring we launched a new Washington DC Service Journey where we travel to our nation’s capital with school groups (Service Learning Journeys) or youth groups (our Service Mission Journey) who want to combine learning about our Country’s history with meaningful service projects. We engage in food packing events two of the days with a local partner that feeds over 700 of the area’s families in need each year, and explore the city and sights another 3-4 days. It’s an awesome experience!

Our other most recent Journey announced is our “Bird and Serve” Journey which is for avid bird watchers! We travel into our partner locations in beautiful Costa Rica to explore and enjoy a wide array of stunning birds and nature as a whole. Typical serve projects during this type of Journey may be spending time at a local school teaching English, engaging the local kids in sports programs, participating in a community renovation project, and ongoing reforestation efforts. This Journey is for the person that loves to adventure, enjoys birding and making a difference!

Q: What can we expect from led2serve in the future? What are your plans?

A: We are currently expanding our team of Journey Leaders, and developing Journey Connectors across the USA. This means that more individuals who may want to lead a journey, or help others connect to Journeys can be a part of this growing team. Our goal is to add 12 individuals to the team be-fore the end of the year that are motivated to engage in something meaningful and life changing for themselves and others.

Additionally, in 2018 we are opening a new region in the stunning Talamanca Mountain Range of Costa Rica. This Journey takes us into a remote mountainside village where the local people welcome us to learn about the history of their area and its origin as coffee country. We will serve together in a variety of projects to assist their community in it’s further development. To balance the week we will take part in a variety of fun excursions such as a visit to the nearby coast for a day at the beach, zip-lining and hiking to the stunning waterfalls.

Q: What is the motto that guides led2serve’s decisions?

A: We have several guiding principles and mottos at Led2Serve! One motto is to Equip, Inspire and Mobilize others to do good stuff. We combine traveling with purpose, and having meaningful serving experiences. Another motto has always been “serving without boundaries”. This means everyone can join a journey, and anyone can be served. We believe that wherever you travel, there is a way to engage in meaningful projects and dig a little deep-er into the community relationships as you play, visit, and explore.

Q: What’s the best thing about led2serve that people might not know about?

A: One of the best things about Led2Serve is that anyone and everyone can join a journey. We customize the serving projects and tailor make them to each person regardless of how old or young they may be, what their interests are, whether or not they have a faith foundation, are single, married, etc. Anyone can join a Journey and experience what being Led2Serve is all about!

Below is SuperBCrew.com’s interview with Vanessa Puleo, the Founder and Executive Director at Led2Serve

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