How My Volunteerwork Changed My Life

At church, in addition to my participation in the worship services, I volunteered at our church’s soup kitchen, medical camps and elementary school for underprivileged children. These experiences opened my eyes to the deprivation of love and care in the world and a dire need of God’s grace for people at large so they could receive forgiveness, healing and restoration in their lives.

This experience led me to carry out several ventures. One of my first ventures was helping in food bank where I helped to pack food and transport it to several organizations and people in need. was hard to balance my school work with volunteering since I had to go in the evenings, but I developed the grit and passion to work hard! I started feeling a sense of accomplishment and gained responsibility.

The Salvation Army is an organization based on helping those in need. The Salvation Army branches off into a variety of groups that all focus on one main thing. They help disaster victims, they provide shelters, they help people overcome poverty, they help to stop domestic abuse, and they help to feed the homeless. Overall, the Salvation Army is a large company that works to aid the people in need. Over the summer I volunteered at the Salvation Army and helped feed the homeless. Although the Salvation Army is an organization that's sole purpose is based on helping the less fortunate , it helped me by bringing happiness in my life after witnessing the non wealthy find so much joy in receiving a small portion of food.

During this semester's service learning project, I chose to serve at a community organization called Church On Wheels, Breaking Bread Soup Kitchen. Every night Monday through Friday Breaking Bread opens its doors to the community and provides a meal at no cost. Their mission statement is simple: To carry the gospel of the Lord through feeding the hungry and helping those in need. With this Christ-like love to His people, every night employees and volunteers come together to provide a meal that does not only feed them physically but nourishes the soul of everyone that enters the doors. Within the city of Midland, Texas you will find a diverse culture and community. Due to the recent oil boom, many families found themselves struggling to put a meal on the table. Breaking Bread saw the need in the community to open the doors every night to see that no one would go hungry in our town. With a commitment to see that the poor and needy are served with the love of Christ. On any given night you can expect to find

Life teaches us lessons every day. Sometimes when we are in the midsts of frustration or confusion we never see clearly or understand the lesson from the situations we are put in. It is only through moments of reflection when a person can begin to see how certain situations have shaped their way of thinking or doing things. For a little over half a year, I worked a part time job during my senior year of high school at Panera Bread. During my time there i was able to observe and see all kinds of different family dynamics and people walk through the door every day. It was strange, it was different, and it was amazing all at the same time to see all of those different walks of life. A favorite memory of mine there that I will never forget occurred on Super Bowl Sunday night. Looking back on my experience from that frustrating night, I find that i learned the value of teamwork, work relationships, and I learned how the most unpleasant situations can turn into great unexpected surprises.

It gave me the chance to vanquish my fears while also realizing that it is God’s plan for me to help out my community. However, I am not surprised that there are still unanswered questions in my head such as: Why is there such a big hunger problem? Why is this problem not spoken about more often? Is there any other way I can help stop this problem? This service has made me more knowledgeable and aware of my community. In addition, this service project has made me take matters into my own hands. Currently, every time my family goes grocery shopping I make sure they get at least five canned goods for donating. As more of my friends volunteer and more donations come in I think we can end this fight for hunger in southern Louisiana. In addition, I believe that we should all take a step back and be thankful for all that we have because some people don’t have such luxuries. God is omnipresent, He would not want to see His children starving. Finally, I see it as a mission that we volunteers get more people involved to volunteer for the greater

I also helped with building emergency non-perishable food boxes for individuals and families, and worked with a team of volunteers to fill backpacks with a set menu of nutritious foods that kids can help themselves to all weekend long.I learned that you don’t have to be a student looking for practicum hours. Or have a court order to touch other peoples life .you can donate your time and touch so many life, anybody can volunteer to help at the Kansas food bank .I met a lot of people who brought their family just to help ,also I leaned that do not take life for

The first thing I experienced was organizing the clothing by women’s, men’s and kids’. I noticed that many of the clothing was old but a lot of people that stay at the Salvation Army would be so grateful for just a pair of socks. On my break, I saw a lot of the people having their lunch. They looked like they were happy for the food that they were eating. I also had the opportunity to prepare the sack lunches. It felt really nice knowing that something I prepared was going to be for someone in need.

I first started working at the Hope Food Pantry during the Summer. I was working at Dordt over the summer and I was looking for service opportunities. That was where I met Marianne and first heard her story of why she and her bible study started the food pantry. I knew that it was something that I wanted to be involved with. Back in Wisconsin, I had been involved in a lot of different service projects through my church and school. Honestly, it was my mother who constantly was signing me up for things to do. It was hard for me to find places to serve when I got to Dordt. I was no longer getting signed up for things or being asked to help. I couldn’t be passive anymore.

Over the years, I have had the great pleasure of taking part in several things that have turned out to be incredible learning experiences. One of the things that I have begun to do in recent years is going on a mission trip with the youth group at my church every year. Starting in the summer of 2013, we have taken about a week out of our summer each year to assist in the clean-up of natural disasters for less fortunate families. Surprisingly, these unpleasant, hot, humid, and smelly days have been some of the most memorable experiences that I have ever taken part in and have taught me an important social lesson. I learned, and relearn every summer, the importance of giving to those who are less fortunate than myself in any way that I am able to.

My first volunteer experience was at the Kaka’ako Homeless Shelter with Olivet Baptist Church. I have assisted with the preparation and distribution of nutritious home cooked meals to underprivileged families since the age of twelve. I was fortunate to be given this opportunity since it allowed me to witness the living conditions of low-income families. Having been exposed to this environment at a young age, my attitude towards individuals of lower socioeconomic status was unaffected by the discrimination these individuals face from society. I continue to enjoy volunteering and being a component

Briefly reflect on how you felt about what you did and learned. What was your ‘take-away’ for the week? On my first volunteer day at the hunger resource center I was slightly overwhelmed as Darrell the Manager was going extremely fast when explaining the computer system to me. He walked away and told me to call him if I had questions. I welcomed the clients and added then into the system, in addition to login in old tickets in the system. I was a little lost initially as I did not have enough guidance being that it was my first day. Another lady asked in Spanish what she needed to get food and I translated for Darrell. Towards the end things settled down, once I added all the tickets in the system I went inside the food bank to help the other volunteers clean up before closing. I learned that there are a lot of people I need and that there are wonderful people that volunteer their time to help others. I felt a sense of making a difference when I helped the

Over the last year we have had a number of opportunities where would could have chosen self-interest but instead looked to the mission of the church, not just our own but the global, ecumenical mission of the church. For example, we looked at one of our properties that could have been sold and provided a nice financial cushion for the future of the congregation but God laid on our heart that the future was important to plan for but there was important ministry the needed to be done now. God shared with a vision where we did more than worship and rent but actually could become a central hub for our community. We began to look at our monthly mobile food pantry as not just an opportunity to get food on the tables of those in our community but to actually connect with those community. We realized that each one of these was gifted in different ways just as we are and that if we could use the space we already had been blessed they could have a place to use those

I enjoyed seeing the men come in and express their excitement about the food we were serving that day. I learned that there are people less fortunate than me all around the world, and in this case, particularly close. But felt a great deal of empathy for these people. No one sets on a goal to be homeless or stand in a soup kitchen line, but many of the McKenna Center clients have been dealt some difficulties throughout their life and those challenges have led to their homeless situations. The key takeaway I learned from my faith was that God wants us to help our fellow man. I believe I worked well in the McKenna Center not only because I have experience working in this environment, but I was able to prepare food in a timely manner, given my previous experiences to

My second concrete experience that was a value to my learning was going with service users to help out with Meals on Wheels. The staff drove to different houses around Stoke to drop off the meals. Some users got to deliver meals by themselves, while some others needed support with staff. This experience was valuable because I got to see service users feeling like they were doing something helpful and important for the community.