Check out this Living Lutheran article about former Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) who volunteered in Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) schools and have now returned to the region to work with various organizations.
“Working near Jerusalem in the West Bank community of Beit Sahour, Marta Erling Spangler started to see the world through the eyes of the Palestinian Christians and Muslims around her.
One of the first participants in the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) service program when it opened sites in the Holy Land in 2008, Erling Spangler had plenty to see.
While she could visit Jerusalem whenever she wanted, her students at the Evangelical Lutheran School in Beit Sahour needed permits to enter. Few could secure them. She took her access to higher education for granted. Checkpoints and conflict stood between her students and university degrees.
Erling Spangler’s growing awareness of her own privilege drew her to focus on social justice after her year of service ended.
Some years later, after volunteering with AmeriCorps in Pittsburgh; earning a master’s degree in ethics, peace and global affairs; and working for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Geneva, she is in Jerusalem again, serving as resource development and board liaison officer with Augusta Victoria Hospital. Operated by the LWF on the Mount of Olives, the hospital offers health-care services otherwise unavailable to the Palestinian community.”
Read the full article here.
