A Year of Service for a Lifetime of Change

Nassau believes that God calls young adults through their experiences in relationship and in serving others. Memorable mission trips as youth or as college students stir in us a desire to know God more and to see God’s world with eyes other than our own. The PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer program (YAV) is a wonderful opportunity to do so!

YAV sends young adults to US and international mission sites to do such things as:

• Engage in environmental protection work in Peru
• Work on immigration reform in Arizona
• Work on sex traffic prevention in Kenya
• Tutor children and youth
• Support art education in underserved populations

Read on below to learn about financial and one-on-one support to serve God in a variety of national or international mission sites. You can participate if you are between the ages of 19 and 30.

Where do I start?

Apply through YAV

To learn how to become a PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer, visit the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s YAV website.

Application Deadlines

• Early Decision: December 1 (National and International)
• Round 2: February 1 (National and International)
• Round 3: April 1 (National Only)
• Last Call: June 1 (National Only)

Apply for Nassau’s fellowship

YAVs commit to fundraising a minimum amount to contribute to the costs of the year. The minimums are $3,000 (National) or $4,000 (International). You can apply to Nassau for us to contribute half of your fundraising goal ($1,500 for national, $2,000 for international)! The PC(USA) covers the remaining costs of the year. The total cost for a year of service is $22,000 on average, including travel costs, orientation and debriefing retreats, health insurance, room and board, and a basic living stipend.

To apply for the Nassau fellowship, send a of copy your YAV application and letters of reference to Nassau Presbyterian Church (ATTN: YAV, Joyce MacKichan Walker), 61 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ, 08542. After reviewing your application, we will contact you to set up an interview, either in person or by phone.

We hope that through YAV you will experience God’s deep love for humanity and the mission of the church as one and the same. Through you, Nassau Church will be blessed by learning about your experience and the places and people you serve.

Resources

• YAV 2016 program pdf
• Read about the YAVs whom Nassau is sponsoring this year.

 

FROM OUR PASTOR

In response to the horrific murder of worshipers at a prayer meeting inside the sanctuary of the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, I am asking the Nassau Presbyterian Church community to join me in prayer:

Merciful God we once again find ourselves coming before you with aching and disbelieving hearts. We lift before you our sisters and brothers in Christ in Charleston; a congregation and family members mourning the loss of a pastor and church members who died inside their house of worship. Yes, we pray too for the young man now arrested and his family. As Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem that could not recognize the things that make for peace, we weep today as an evil act of violence once again shatters the hope for peace in the land. Holy One, as hatred and racism and gun violence once again come to the front page of the nation’s conscience, we fervently pray that you will lead us, encourage us, inspire us to work more intensely toward the Hebrew prophets’ vision of a peaceable kingdom and the Apostle Paul’s description of the more excellent way. By your grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit, save us, O God, from the tyranny of sin, the apathy of weak leaders, and the powers and principalities that profit from our fears. We are your body, O Christ! Your hands, your feet, and your voice. Multiply and make sacred our efforts to transform the world. Help us stand and speak and work for justice, until as Dr. King put it, we can “make of this old world, a new world”. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.