March 11, 2005: Headlines: COS - Lesotho: Ministry: Greenwich Citizen: Todd Vetter spent three years in the Peace Corps, 1995-98, teaching English and math to high school students in Lesotho, a mountain village in Africa. "The impact of the sense of community the village had," said the minister, who is currently working at the Orange Congregational Church, "had a very significant affect on me."
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March 2, 2005: Headlines: COS - Lesotho: Religion: Ministry: The Orange Bulletin : During Todd Vetter's time in the Peace Corps (1995-98), teaching high school English and mathematics in the village of Lesotho in Southern Africa, he received his calling to become a minister :
March 11, 2005: Headlines: COS - Lesotho: Ministry: Greenwich Citizen: Todd Vetter spent three years in the Peace Corps, 1995-98, teaching English and math to high school students in Lesotho, a mountain village in Africa. "The impact of the sense of community the village had," said the minister, who is currently working at the Orange Congregational Church, "had a very significant affect on me."
Todd Vetter spent three years in the Peace Corps, 1995-98, teaching English and math to high school students in Lesotho, a mountain village in Africa. "The impact of the sense of community the village had," said the minister, who is currently working at the Orange Congregational Church, "had a very significant affect on me."
Todd Vetter spent three years in the Peace Corps, 1995-98, teaching English and math to high school students in Lesotho, a mountain village in Africa. "The impact of the sense of community the village had," said the minister, who is currently working at the Orange Congregational Church, "had a very significant affect on me."
Vetters: Family Ties to Faith
By Christopher Falvo HYPERLINK
[Excerpt]
Before moving to Greenwich, the newlyweds, married last June 26, volunteered in Third-World countries. Sarah Vetter spent 2003 in Mexico, volunteering at a homeless shelter for abused women and children. Prior to meeting Sarah, Todd Vetter spent three years in the Peace Corps, 1995-98, teaching English and math to high school students in Lesotho, a mountain village in Africa. "The impact of the sense of community the village had," said the minister, who is currently working at the Orange Congregational Church, "had a very significant affect on me."
The two crossed paths in 2000 while Sarah was studying at the Yale University Divinity School. After Yale, the native of Harrington Park, N.J., left for Arizona for two years, before heading to Mexico and then back to Connecticut. The female pastor did not plan to enter the ministry from a young age, but did realize her calling was to help others. After bouncing around the country and Mexico for five years, Vetter, a graduate of Colby College in Maine, feels she has finally found a place to hang her hat.
"I feel so far it's a good fit, personality wise, between me and the church," said Vetter. "Hopefully they'll let me stay." The appointment of a pastor in the Methodist faith is conducted by bishops, who have the power to move the clergy as they deem necessary. That is the major difference between the UMC and her husband's denomination, the United Church of Christ, where leaders are selected on a local level and there is no semblance of a hierarchy.
The couple's nearly three years apart, while volunteering across the globe, has prepared them for busy days and a devotion to their faith that sometimes pulls them away from each another. "It's challenging having both of us in the same line of work, because it's very time consuming," said Todd Vetter. "We don't see each other as much as we'd like." The two have been known to work 50 to 55 hours a week.
Even the drawback of spending less time with their better half does not deter them from the joy the two derive from their callings. "I find it exceptionally rewarding," Todd said. "I have a strong sense of confidence in my calling." "Since I've come to church ministry, I feel much happier and this is where I belong," Sarah said.
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter. |
| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory. |
| Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week. |
| Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
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Story Source: Greenwich Citizen
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Lesotho; Ministry
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