Applications are now available for 2020-2021 placements with the Young Adult Service Corps (YASC), the international missionary program of The Episcopal Church. YASC offers Episcopalians ages 21-30 the opportunity to follow the Way of Love into deeper relationship with God and the global Anglican Church while spending a year living and working with communities around the world. From Guatemala to Oman, the Philippines to England, El Salvador to South Africa, and dozens of countries in between, YASC volunteers are building relationships that transform their lives and their faith.

These young adults serve as teachers in church-run schools, work alongside development professionals who seek to empower their local communities, and participate in the daily life and ministry of churches and cathedrals around the Anglican Communion.

“We see this ministry as a way to support young adult leadership while also offering them opportunities to explore their faith in new ways. They truly cross boundaries, engage with diverse viewpoints, listen deeply, and live like Jesus in new ways and new places,” said Elizabeth Boe, Episcopal Church mission personnel officer, and former YASC volunteer in Tanzania from 2008-2010. “As Presiding Bishop Curry shared with YASC and Episcopal Volunteers in Mission members earlier this year, ‘relationships really are the key to everything.’”

Madeline Roberts, who recently finished her YASC year in the Diocese of Liverpool, said, “I chose to serve because I wanted a year to grow not only as a young woman, but to also grow in my faith. I knew that choosing a job that would require me to live in a completely different country, in a different corner of the world would be challenging, but after finishing university, I wanted to challenge myself. I was interested to see how the church can function not just as a place of worship, but also as a place of community, and a place of work.”

Potential placements for 2020-2021 include (but are not limited to) Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Oman, Panama, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Tanzania. Additional information, as well as the application form and instructions, for a 2020-2021 placement is available here (www.episcopalchurch.org/yasc). The application deadline is Friday, January 10, 2020.

Lydia Pendleton reflects on her YASC year in the Episcopal Diocese of Puerto Rico, “YASC has given me the opportunity to continue God’s work in the world, furthering the work of the church that has always been an important part of my life, expanding my own faith community and family. I will always be grateful for this experience YASC has given me to truly be a part of the Jesus Movement.”

The Rev. David Copley, director of Global Partnerships and Mission Personnel, and a former missionary in Liberia and Bolivia, noted, "YASC offers young adults the opportunity to build on the foundation of faith, knowledge, education, and experience that they bring with them when they serve. Living with, working alongside, and being fully present in a community in another part of God’s world creates space for personal transformation and deep relationship building. Missionary service is first and foremost an act of faith and a way of being Church.”

For more information contact Boe, eboe@episcopalchurch.org.

Additional information about YASC, videos, and blogs are available at https://tinyurl.com/yxr8aqxu.