An interview with international mission volunteers, Jutta and August von Dahl

Reprinted from "Loaves & Fishes"  March - April, 2010

                [Editor’s note:  The von Dahl’s, aged 66 and 67, are from Bell, Hunsrück, Germany.  The are completing a 6 month term of volunteer service in April.   They are both ordained ministers with the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland and have served us at Clairvaux Farm, the Mary Randall Center, and at the Rotating Emergency Winter Shelter.]

What was your motivation in coming to volunteer so far from your home?

August: I grew up with the feeling of being responsible, as the oldest of five children.  I was a war baby, born in 1942.  One of my most vivid memories from childhood was as a 2-year-old being hurried to the basement of our house with my family to escape the bombing.  Solidarity with others is in my genes.  I feel responsible for everyone and everything around me, in society.

Jutta:  I enjoy traveling, but I would not go on  a cruise.  I really want to get to know people and the country where I travel, and to know what life is like from other perspectives — not coming as a visitor, but living together with others.

What has been your most memorable or instructive impression of  your service at Meeting Ground?

J:  Today there are 34 persons here in the Rotating Winter Shelter.  These are 34 different lives, viewpoints,  life stories, and education.  Although they are homeless, they are individuals first.  One thing that I have greatly admired in the U.S. is volunteerism.  It is not yet as highly developed in Europe, but I think it should be.  When I go home I hope to promote this idea.  I hope I can refer some other people to come back to Meeting Ground as volunteers.  Among my most emotionally uplifting moments has been seeing whole families volunteer, even grandparents and grandchildren — passing the legacy from one generation to another.

A: I have been impressed with the many persons of different life experiences who are involved as volunteers.  How these, the same as I, feel an obligation and responsibility for those who are poor.  I have only rarely been able to experience texts of the Bible coming alive through what volunteers do.  One of the passages is Matthew 25, “Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me.”  Faith and doing should be connected together always.  Like the old monasteries with their example of prayer and work.  On the negative side, I have noticed how much use of the word “God” there is in everything.  We are not used to it.   I appreciate the instruction of the Jewish faith to be suspicious of those who misuse and overuse the name of God, especially when it is connected to money or militarism.

J:  The other day we saw a truck with two bumper stickers:  “In God we trust” and “Our troops are our best protection.”  This is something we have difficulty understanding -- the connection of God, money, and the military.  We Germans have had experience in our recent history with that, and it is hard for Christians elsewhere to understand why we feel so strongly about that.  Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

What is one outstanding experience of your volunteer service?

J:  The night when we saved a young man’s life.  It was a horrible night when we were helping in the Rotating Winter Shelter during a blizzard.  We had to drive this person who was having a medical emergency  through a snowstorm.  We did it together.  August did the driving and I did the worrying. 

A: The wonderful feeling of being welcomed by homeless persons everywhere we have served.  And to be welcomed by the community from the beginning and taken in with responsibility.  I have grown in my thoughts, and I would like to return next year.  Even at my age I have the feeling to re-invent myself!