Sioux Falls, SD

(605) 338-2512

Service
The Sioux Falls MVS unit has been a long-held dream of Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church, which has a strong commitment to service. The unit became a reality in 1996, and volunteers have worked with refugees and immigrants, mental health day patients and troubled youth as well as supported the local Ten Thousand Villages self-help crafts store that helps artisans and craftspeople in developing countries.

Sponsoring agencies for the Sioux Falls MVS unit include Lutheran Social Services and its Refugee and Immigrant Programs; Southeast Mental Health Services (mental health day treatment facility); Summit Oaks Center (services for at-risk youth); Ten Thousand Villages and Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP).

MVS Application To apply for one of the service opportunities below, complete an online application, or print and mail a PDF application (Adobe Reader required) and send it to: Mennonite Mission Network ATTN: Human Resources 500 S. Main P.O. Box 370 Elkhart, IN 46515-0370

Location
Sioux Falls, the state's largest city with more than 125,000 people, is a growing and picturesque city in southeastern South Dakota. Built along the Points of interest. Other Sioux Falls attractions include:

• a variety of cultural activities
• several colleges and universities
• the largest shopping mall in South Dakota
• coffee shops with local performing artists
• a ski slope, tubing hills and ice skating ponds
• a bicycle and walking path that will eventually circle the city
• Falls Park with its lookout tower and laser light show
• a great library
• semi-pro sports teams: Skyforce basketball; Stampede hockey; Canaries baseball; a new soccer team
• Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science
• Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum of Natural History
• Wild Water West amusement park with water slides
• South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
• community playhouse that stages about eight shows a year

Unit
Unit life in Sioux Falls is continually subject to change! The current unit house consists of two apartments with a total of four bedrooms. Unit members share a common kitchen area for preparation and consumption of meals. Only 12 steps separate the two apartments.

The apartment building is located in a pleasant neighborhood close to downtown Sioux Falls, so walking to work is an option for some assignments. Public transportation is available and the unit also owns a car for volunteer use.

Church
Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church is a small congregation with about 35 members. There are elementary school-aged children, teens, singles, couples and senior citizens in the congregation. It is the only church in a neighborhood of middle- to lower-income families.

Congregational participation in all aspects of church life is welcomed and encouraged--MVSers included. This may take the form of leading worship, reading a children's story, presenting drama or special music or reading Scripture during worship, as well as teaching Sunday school classes for different age groups or volunteering at the Shalom Reader's Club, an evening activity that provides children with opportunities to read books about peace and justice issues.

Other programs that the church supports and participates in are the Ten Thousand Villages store, the annual Minn-Kota Mennonite Relief Sale, VORP, The Banquet (volunteers provide meals to homeless and hungry people in the city) and the M2 Prison Visitation program in the state penitentiary.

The church has an MVS Support Committee that seeks to help volunteers adjust to their work situations, and gives support, care and help with problems. The committee and unit members meet monthly to review what is happening at work and in unit life, to review unit income, budget and expenses and to discuss any unit-related issues. There are usually opportunities for MVSers to report on their work in other Sioux Falls churches as well as the larger Mennonite communities in South Dakota and Minnesota.