Foreign Volunteers Helping Americans In Need

Alex Lepp and Sebastian Peters didn't know where they would land when they signed up for a yearlong volunteer mission.

Upon graduating from high school, the 20-year-olds from Cologne, Germany, had a choice between a stint of obligatory military service or volunteering in some capacity.

"We decided social service was better for us," Peters said.

The two ended up in Frederick at the Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs.

Peters works as a volunteer coordinator, and Lepp works the financial side for the organization that operates the city's only cold-weather homeless shelter and provides financial and medical assistance to needy families.

Both men are provided housing within walking distance of the coalition's offices and a stipend.

"It's very nice to see a new culture," said Lepp. "Every day to live here is like a new day for us."

The organization's work was new for both who come from a country with government-provided health care and services for the poor.

"We don't really have offices and organizations like we do here," Peters said.

When not behind a desk, both do intake work with clients, giving them a ground-level view of the mounting need caused by the economic recession.

Lepp arrived two months ago as a volunteer attached to the United Church of Christ. Peters came 2 1/2 months ago under an assignment with the Brethren Volunteer Service, a program of the Church of the Brethren.

The Rev. Brian Scott, the coalition's executive director, said the organization gets volunteers every year.

While volunteers can come from both the U.S. and abroad, Scott said fewer Americans have been volunteering for mission service.

Wherever they come from, the jobs Peters and Lepp fill right now are essential to the coalition's operations.

"The Religious Coalition couldn't keep our doors open without the two mission volunteers," Scott said.

Copyright 2009 The Frederick News-Post. All rights reserved.