Give LaVeta Her Flowers
If you’ve spent any time in an OFMN training, you’ve likely shared the experience of receiving the wisdom and expertise of LaVeta Gilmore Jones. She has shaped the spirit of our trainings, invited leaders to deep listening, and is quick to offer guidance to new organizers.
As she enters a new season of her life, including mostly “retiring” from her work with Leaven Community (but of course organizers never fully retire - just re-organize!), she’s discerned it was time to move off the shared leadership team of OFMN.
To mark this significant moment within our network, we’ve gathered a few words of appreciation. You can add your own stories, blessings, and love using the Kudo board linked in this month's newsletter.
Thank you LaVeta for being such a blessing to our network!
Peace and Goodness,
Br. Steve Jerbi,
Director
I met LaVeta at one of our early Organizing For Mission Network (OFMN) Contextual Gatherings, held in Portland OR. She was a leader at our host site, Redeemer/Leaven Project (before they became Salt and Light Lutheran/tLeaven Community). One memorable part of that was a tour of the city that LaVeta led, providing important insights about the history of the neighborhoods from the unique perspective of a Black woman who calls Portland home.
LaVeta soon became Leaven/Salt and Light’s Organizer and a key leader in the OFMN, serving on numerous planning committees and the Shared Leadership Team. When we reverted to online trainings during the Covid crisis, LaVeta offered fresh perspectives about reframing our Organizing Cycle training session to better reflect the spiritual aspects of the work and the reality of it not always working like a neat cycle, but rather a spiral. LaVeta regularly provided trainees with crucial lessons from her on-the-ground experience of faith-and-community based organizing.
I admire LaVeta’s no-nonsense yet collegial, patient approach to working with leaders in a predominantly white denomination. She has been a gift to the Network and I am personally grateful for her partnership over the years.
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Sue Engh
Former Organizing for Mission Network Director
Reflecting on the years we spent working together, know that I am deeply grateful for your leadership and the spirit of groundedness you brought to every space we shared. Whether we were co-training, facilitating webinars, or navigating the complexities of the leadership team, your wisdom and calm presence anchored me. Your way of offering perspective always seemed to bring clarity in moments of difficulty and holding me accountable to staying in discomfort longer so that I could grow.
Your influence has shaped not only the Organizing for Mission Network but the Portland area through your work. The contribution of the organizing spiral and your teaching of it has left an indelible mark on my teaching of organizing and I am so grateful. Thank you for your dedication, your expertise, and most of all, for the steady, compassionate leadership you shared with me. Blessings in whatever you do next, and may you find peace and joy in it.
With immense gratitude,
Sr. Kelly Marciales
Former Director of the Organizing for Mission Network
It is with great joy and admiration that I celebrate your retirement!!! Thank you for consistently modeling how we are to be in this work. I am deeply grateful for you and your leadership style. You embody the very nature of community organizing, leading from your own experience and modeling what strategic curiosity can offer our movements.
Thank you for sharing this model for leadership with our movement and for developing leaders to embody the same. I will miss your stories, your perspective, and the joy you bring into every training space. Some may say there will be a LaVeta sized hole in our movement, but I know better. You have imparted your wisdom and invested your knowledge in all of us, and because of that you will forever be part of our movement and praxis. Thank you!
Take care,
Joey Lopez (he/him)
Co-Executive Director