The simplest picture.

Our logo tells a story. For me, it swells with meaning as I review the history that supports my work today. Its image contains people, intention, and deep sacrifices. The following are excerpted from Charlotte Gronseth’s book, “Boundless Love: Twenty Years of Life-Transforming Service in China, 2000 to 2020” (Outskirts Press, 2023).

China Service Ventures has been committed to fostering mutually enriching relationships between Christian communities in North America and communities in China, including Christian communities

We understand mission in so far as it reaches beyond the boundaries of the church, as held together by the twin poles of confessing the name of Jesus Christ and service to the neighbor. It is our intention to hold these poles together. In so doing, China Service Ventures will always identify itself as a committed group of Christian people who are convinced that witness occurs in and through relationships.”

A blend of word and image, a blur of motion is enscribed in crisp Chinese characters. These name the word service and portray it at the same time, a kneeling figure with a bowl. Holding two founding concepts together, with an invitation.

“Acts of kindness to strangers get noticed, and the servant spirit pervading all these labors raises curiosity. When we are asked why we come so far to serve total strangers, we have the opportunity to tell of the goodness of God who loved the world enough to come among us as a servant.”

The asymmetric concept of service is expressed in Christ’s words—“Not to be served but to serve”— and is beautifully illustrated in CSV’s logo, designed by Mr. Lu Wei. I am again captured by his imaginative simplicity: use of three letters ‘CSV’ to depict a kneeling figure who is offering assistance to someone unseen — a neighbor, or a stranger. Exactly who is not for us to decide or know in advance.