IVC Stories
Volunteer’s Life of Service Leads to Life of Faith
Most Ignatian Volunteers come to IVC seeking to live their faith through service. But Lucy Howell came to IVC to find her faith amid her service. Howell had always volunteered — PTA, classroom parent, Cub Scouts, community organizations, church. Her service eventually...
Saying Yes: Choosing Action Over Indifference
by Tiffany Nelms Severely disabled, 9-year-old Sara had been denied medical care and was alienated by her community in Latin America. Her mother, hoping to find a cure for her daughter, crossed the desert between the United States and Mexico with Sara on her back. ...
How I Followed Two Fathers to a Life of Service
by Al Rowley Faith of our fathers, holy faith. It’s a refrain that echoes in my life, where two fathers — my dad, Allan Rowley, Sr., Esq., and my uncle, Father James Colford, S.J. — handed down to me a living faith. My uncle was insightful and funny and always ready...
Denver Cafe Upends Soup Kitchen Stereotype
At Denver’s SAME Café, no day is ever the same. The menu changes almost daily, depending on what’s come in fresh from local organic growers. Prices aren’t set on the menu, either. As for the clientele — it’s typical to see a business-suited customer lunching next to...
Following Christ to a Homeless Shelter
by Nick Sharkey When I joined IVC I wanted to do something different with my life. I wanted to work directly with poor people. After many years of pursuing a demanding career and raising three children together with my wife, Janice, I was ready for a change. I was...
Volunteer’s Unplanned Retirement Leads to Life of Gratitude
Bob Greenwell is a planner. He worked hard at his accounting job for 40 years, planned how he and his wife would raise their family of six children, and mapped out his retirement. What he didn’t plan was what he’d do after he retired. “I thought I’d get up late, watch...
An Author’s Unfinished Story
At 80, Barbara Lee has had her first book published and is embarking on a new career in spiritual direction. She rightly declares that neither she nor God is finished with her life yet.
IVC & JVC Volunteers Work Together to Build Up Lives of Immigrants and One Another
Boston’s Casserly House is a crossroads where Jesuit-minded volunteers bridge across generations not only to serve vulnerable immigrants struggling to build a life in the United States — but also to help one another on their own life journeys. For nearly a decade,...
Volunteer Makes Sense of Work at Milwaukee Inner City School
A rainbow connects an IVC Milwaukee volunteer to an inner city school, where she helps children process the traumas they experience in their young lives.