The Benedictine Volunteer Corps is truly a unique experience, though it may appear somewhat unusual to an outsider. Sharing this experience with family and friends can be challenging, but sharing it with a fellow volunteer highlights the common thread among us all—a community understanding of taking a leap of faith. And so, "Project Untold" was born.

Since 2003, the Benedictine Volunteer Corps has sponsored an annual cohort of Saint John’s University graduates to live, work, and pray alongside Benedictine communities around the world. We are Sam Rengo ('23) and Jacob Lipke ('23) of the 2023-2024 chapter. We are two of the twenty-one volunteers from the 2023-2024 cohort, who served in nine countries on five continents. Our leap of faith led us to serve our term in East Africa.

Rengo volunteered in Hanga, Tanzania, a rural village, where he served as a lab technician at the health center, a high school teacher, and assisted with agricultural activities. Lipke served in Nairobi, Kenya, one of Africa's largest cities, volunteering with Alfajiri Street Kids Art, a primary school, and a special needs orphanage.

The community we formed with the people and the deep-rooted connection to the place framed our time in East Africa well. Unforgettable experiences, like a safari in the northern Serengeti and summiting Mount Kilimanjaro with close friends, live fondly in our memories. However, an unexpected call to service changed the course of our year.

In January 2024, a call to service came from our Director, Br. Paul Richards, O.S.B., and Assistant Director, Logan Lintvedt. The Benedictine Monastery of Tabgha, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is famously home to the Church of the Multiplication, believed to be the site where Christ fed five thousand people (Matthew 14:13-21). The monastery grounds also host Beit Noah, an interfaith retreat center for Israeli and Palestinian youth with special needs. Volunteers who typically assist at Beit Noah were evacuated in October 2023, leaving the center and the youth who rely on it uncertain about their future. Who would take this leap of faith?

Our commitment to continue our year of service led us to join evening prayers with a dozen German monks and Filipino sisters, while just a few kilometers north, missiles exploded over the Iron Dome, an eerie percussion to our psalms.

The BVC provided an extraordinary depth of experience, and we felt a responsibility to give back to the program. Transferring sites midway through instilled a sense of purpose—knowing we were part of something greater than ourselves. Our experience is not solely our own; rather, it builds on foundations former volunteers have established with communities worldwide. This purpose is rooted in the Benedictine values of intentional listening, care for the common good, and living in community.

We imagined the possibility of creating profiles of volunteers that highlight their perspectives and stories of service—a testimony of the BVC through the voices of its service members. Our initial interviews included six volunteers who served in pairs at sites in Italy, Puerto Rico, and Rwanda. We aimed to deepen our relational knowledge of our interviewees and understand how their volunteer service continues to shape them.

Our interviewees all shared that they hadn’t had the chance to talk about their experiences in this way before. The joy they felt recounting their memories reaffirmed our purpose. As the interviews progressed, we realized this project could extend far beyond these six stories. We hope that fellow BVC alumni are interested in sharing their own. We envision volunteers interviewing each other, facilitating the sharing of their ‘untold’ stories. We encourage those interested in being featured in this newsletter segment to contact us.

The Benedictine Volunteer Corps is truly a unique experience, though it may seem unusual to outsiders. Sharing this experience with family and friends can be challenging, but connecting with a fellow volunteer highlights the shared thread—a community understanding of taking a leap of faith. And so, Project Untold was born.

An Untraditional Start
“I was just genuinely unhappy.”

Having a loving family, a well-paying job, and living close to many friends right after college isn’t a bad situation. But for Logan Braaten (SJU ‘22), this life wasn’t as fulfilling as he’d expected.

“I never had a lot of forethought,” he admitted. College was supposed to be a fun stepping stone to a business degree and a great job. While these expectations materialized in May 2022, questions about life and purpose nagged at him. “For the longest time, I couldn’t put my finger on why.”

Braaten explained with typical humility, “In general, things had always been pretty easy, and I hadn’t really had to respond to adversity. I had a lot of internal anxiety about how I would react in uncomfortable situations, and sitting in a cubicle was as far from that as possible.”

Meanwhile, close friends shared incredible stories from their service years in Puerto Rico and Tanzania, planting seeds of a decision.

Taking matters into his own hands, Braaten reached out to Brother Paul and, after a few emails, secured a spot with the Corps for the 2023-24 year. He was expected to report to St. John’s for a two-week retreat with other volunteers in May, before heading out for a year of service in Kigali, Rwanda, later that summer.

Despite the ease of the process, the decision itself was hard. Many thought Braaten was taking a step backward, letting go of the safety and security he’d cultivated over the past year. When he quit his job in early May, he thought, “This cannot be the right decision.”

However, his apprehensions quickly faded at the retreat, where he met “a bunch of people with similar mindsets.” For those who know him, this was high praise for his fellow volunteers.

Logan Braaten is a confident, capable young man who felt something was missing. He dared to confront that anxiety and made a bold choice to seek discomfort in pursuit of lasting growth.

“If you're trying to create compassionate and interesting people, I'm not sure there's a better way to do it than the BVC.” - Logan Braaten