Secretariat Office

Adventist Volunteer Service Facts and Other Information

In 1959 Columbia Union College started a program to get young people involved in the mission of the church while they were still in school. In the 1995-96 school year, some 338 student missionaries had the life-changing experience of spending nine to twelve months in overseas service. The success of this program spawned, in 1968, the Adventist Volunteer Service Corps (AVSC) for older volunteers, and in 1970, Task Force, a program that put student volunteers to work at mission tasks in their own countries. During the past year, AVSC had 341 volunteers and TASK Force, 70.

1. Are the following facts correct: Columbia Union College started a program to get young people involved in the mission of the church while they were still in school. In the 1995-96 school year, some 338 student missionaries had the life-changing experience of spending nine to twelve months in overseas service. The success of this program spawned, in 1968, the Adventist Volunteer Service Corps (AVSC) for older volunteers, and in 1970, Task Force, a program that put student volunteers to work at mission tasks in their own countries. During the past year (date???), AVSC had 341 volunteers and TASK Force, 70.

Columbia Union Conference reserved a whole issue to the 100th anniversary of CUC and if I recall correctly, they referred to some of this info but I can’t say for sure. (CUC is now WAU-Washington Adventist University). You might search for this union paper on their website at: www.columbiaunion.org/index.php.

2. How many are currently processed to serve in other divisions?

As of today, 31 July, 2009, there are 823 volunteers serving. I’ve attached the two latest lists I have for statistics (see below)-hope you find them helpful. It is very important to differentiate between volunteers serving at any given time from Jan to Dec and those volunteers who were processed to leave for service during the same dates. As you will see in my attached statistics, there is a huge difference.

3. How many serve within their division through HisHands or other volunteer programs?

I’m not sure I can answer this with certainty. Most divisions (including SSD) don’t use the AVS database for their intra-division volunteers so I wouldn’t have an accurate count on this.

4. In how many countries do our volunteers currently serve?

71 countries as of today

5. Are the Stories in the “Volunteer” magazine currently available online for people to read?

Yes, on the home page, scroll down and in the blue section at the bottom over on the right side, there is a link to the Mission Post Magazine. The latest 4 are showing there. The Newsletter will be added hopefully in the next few weeks.

6. What countries send the most volunteers to another division?

In 2008, NAD sent out the most people – 452-they always send out the most, (but the United States sent out – 486-these extra people go through Loma Linda University School of Health which we process here at the GC). 20   to ECD 9     to EUD 10    to ESD 31    to IAD 19    to NAD (at least in our DB, they may have done some outside our DB) 159 to NSD 15    to SAD 14    to SPD 7     to SID 10    to SUD 131 to SSD 16    to TED 11    to WAD

7. What are the most requested volunteer positions? (ie, teachers, etc.)

Most of the positions we have listed on the website are teacher positions

8. Who have been the GC AVS Leaders and what years have they served?
Ronald Watts:	1 Sept, 1996 to 30 Sept, 1997 - got the AVS program started
Vernon Parmenter:	1 Nov, 1997 to 21 July, 2008 -AVS Website – we used to have a paper based call list with a call book but he changed  it over so that calls were listed online on the website -Established the AVS Magazine Mission Post -Created the HisHands program -New AVS Online Database and Application process – 30 April, 2007 went live
Homer Trecartin:	13 Oct, 2008 to present

 

AVS Statistics and Info

Statistics by Year up to 2008 - Primarily NAD

Statistics by Year up to 2008 - Other Divisions

or

 

Presidential | Treasury