Visit to Madison MVS House

Dates June 9-11

I began my journey by traveling to the state known for its cheese. I was met by Joe at the Megabus stop on the University of Wisconsin campus. We went to the Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) house, where Clayton was waiting to greet me. Both are members of the Madison MVS unit and friends from my years at Goshen College.

L to R: Clayton, Reuben, and Joe

I was impressed during my stay with the hospitality of the Madison MVS house. They planned a balance of fun activities and time to relax. On Saturday, we chatted about our experiences with volunteering, while we toured Madison and enjoyed several outdoor events. Sunday, we spent the morning playing disc golf. Disc sports are important to the Madison community, which has multiple ultimate leagues and disc golf courts.

Early Sunday afternoon brunch, the unit invited members of the Local Leadership Committee and other members of the church to have a conversation about lgbt inclusion in MVS. I brought them up to speed about the events that had taken place with MVS, and was impressed by their understanding of the situation and valued their suggestions and comments. Recently, they had updated their description on the Madison MVS webpage by linking the words “open and affirming” to their homepage to explain what these words meant to their congregation. “Open and affirming” is a phrase used to describe a congregation’s public invitation of welcome to lgbt people. They wanted me to return in the fall to lead“safe zone” training for their congregation, MVS unit, and members of the community. “Safe Zone” training is a service Brethren Mennonite Council provides, which includes education on how to make a welcoming place for lgbt people. They told me about other efforts they were doing to reach out to welcome lgbt people, including having more conversation with the other units. I encouraged them to continue to have these conversations.

It was great first visit to a MVS unit, and I gained more respect and understanding for the program. While there is still need to change some of the policies and structure of the MVS program, it gave me hope to see that MVS Units like Madison are actively working to be more welcoming.

Contact Reuben at kaleidoscope@bmclgbt.org to learn more about this project and arrange a visit to your unit!