Why I Do What I Do

From Sabah to the World: The 2011/12 YAGM Malaysia Team Departs - July 2012

Reflecting on the life, death, and legacy of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Amie Bishop, one of the Peace Corps volunteers he served with in Morocco, shared the following thought with NPR. "[The United States] needs more people like Chris," she said. "[We] need people who are culturally competent, who are linguistically fluent, who are willing to engage. . ." In her estimation, and that of others, his time spent doing international voluntary service significantly shaped the different type of leader that he became.

Why do I do what I do?

I do what I do because I too believe that we, as a whole, need leaders in our Governments, Businesses, Religious Organizations, and Communities who are culturally competent, who are linguistically fluent, and who are willing to engage  . . . with people . . . wherever they are at. 

I do what I do trusting that the Young Adults who come to serve in Southeast Asia with the YAGM program will be able to identify and share some of their God-given gifts and abilities with those in their communities of service and, more importantly perhaps, that they will learn to receive the gifts and talents their hosts have to offer with gratitude and humility.

I do what I do with the hope that a year of service, a year of learning to navigate linguistic and cultural divides, a year of walking shoulder to shoulder with international companions and witnessing what God is up to in this part of the world will have an impact. . . That ten, twenty, or fifty years from now the Young Adults I am fortunate enough to meet and mentor in Sabah will be noted for the different type of leaders that they have become.

I do what I do with faith and confidence that God can, does, and will work through us all to stir up something good. I do what I do with awe, witnessing these new creations in the process of becoming.