Deborah Yoder joined Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) for the 2023-24 term with the hope of any new college graduate: landing a meaningful internship. She got more than she bargained for.
Her top-choice placement was The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, a nonprofit that challenges Christian churches to address the displacement, enslavement, and forced assimilation of Indigenous Peoples.
Having grown up as a mission worker kid — her parents were Mennonite Mission Network international workers in Benin (2000-2009) and Burkina Faso (2012-2019), two countries with complex and painful histories of colonization — Yoder witnessed first-hand the lingering wounds of European colonialism in West Africa. While both countries are now independent, Yoder recalled that the cultural trauma of colonization was still plainly evident, even to a child. While she didn’t know much about the Doctrine of Discovery itself, she was deeply drawn to work for an organization committed to repairing the harm that it brought to Indigenous communities.
Yoder was accepted into Tucson, Arizona, MVS and spent her service year working remotely for the Coalition, managing communications through social media, web publications, and blogs. She commuted – walking across the road from the unit house to her office in the unit’s host church, Shalom Mennonite Fellowship. Her work was different from her housemates, most of whom had hands-on placements.
At the end of her service term, she accepted a paid staff position with the Coalition – an outcome that isn’t typical for MVS placements but does sometimes occur.
“[MVS] was really like a transition into adulthood in a way,” said Yoder. While she and the other participants in the Tucson unit were all volunteers with their placement organizations, they were treated as full contributors with real responsibility, giving Yoder experience and confidence she couldn’t have gained elsewhere so early in her career.
Outside of their placements, Yoder and her fellow participants shared life together in the unit house. While many of them had experienced some form of communal living in college, living life as a unit was on another level. Budgeting, scheduling cooking and cleaning, and planning group activities meant that everyone had to practice negotiation, advocacy, and grace for one another.
“[MVS] really expanded my view of what values I wanted to pursue in life, what values were important to me,” said Yoder. “It taught me a lot about community and community living.”
A big part of the ‘secret sauce’ that makes MVS unique is the relationship that participants share with the unit’s supporting faith community. Congregation members welcome new participants inviting them to worship, dinners and activities.
“They really connected with us as individuals as well as a unit,” said Yoder. “Even though I was living in Arizona for the first time, it didn’t feel strange or scary, as maybe it would be when you’re moving somewhere new for the first time.”
For Yoder, MVS wasn’t just a gap-year program — it was a time to refine her values, deepen her understanding of community, and it turned a one-year commitment into a vocation.
Mennonite Voluntary Service is a program of Mennonite Mission Network. Registration for the 2026-27 service term is now open! Click here for more information and to apply.
