This post reflects on the importance of maintaining a robust foreign assistance program. My 30+ year career in international development work taught me that the payoffs for U.S. citizens far outweigh the costs. Now that my beloved former agency, and the entire foreign assistance world is under attack, I am both personally and professiona…
This essay is a meditation on volunteerism and its connection to supporting and growing the common good. As former Peace Corps Volunteers and Recruiters, my wife and I both understand and lived the obligations and rewards of volunteer work. These days, however, I’ve been thinking increasingly about volunteerism’s connection to the health of a community, and resistance to malevolent outside forces.
But a house is not a home, just as the church is not the congregation, or a city isn’t the same as a community. Those things we build in our minds, and in our hearts. Such is a sanctuary, as well.