Personal Narrative: I Volunteer In My Local Church

The Easter egg hunt was designed for children in the church community. Another event I volunteered in was making prayer blankets for the homeless. A prayer blanket is two pieces of fabric connected by knots, and with every knot tied, a prayer is said for the person the blanket is going to. I also participated in volunteering for the vet. Similarly, my family was a member of the Missouri House Rabbit Society and fostered a total of eight bunnies. We eventually adopted two bunnies named Shannon and Clover. I love to make a difference in my community, even if it was a small deed.

I serve at my church by helping the kids learn more about their religion and I occasionally help at the food bank. Also, every Wednesday I help babysit my baby cousin Olivia. But, the main reason I give service is to learn more about life and people. I also give service because it brings joy to my heart.

I have gone to feed my starving children twice in the last year including once with school for the freshmen project and once on my own. I work at Ridgemoor Country Club, and I donated my time to the St Pat's golf outing in which I caddied for 5 hours and donated the money I received to St Pats. Another example of service is when I went with the soccer team to a special Olympics event. We helped special needs children play and learn soccer once a week for 2-3 months. I also have been an alter server since sixth grade at St Mary of the Woods Parish. I serve at least one mass every two weeks often doing funerals and wedding which are very important masses. I have worked every open house at St Pats leading tour groups and talking about my experiences at the

I have contributed greatly to my community through volunteering at the Riverview Community Gardens, the Christus Church youth mission trip, Nordic Mountain, and the G2 Youth Group. At the Riverview Community Gardens I have volunteered for approximately 32 hours. I have helped plant, harvest, and clean vegetables that have later been used for selling. Also, I spent around 40 hours in New Orleans on the Christus Church mission trip. We helped rebuild the damaged homes from Hurricane Katrina.

I serve turkey dinners and make means for the less fortunate. I also serve at mass most Sundays. My favorite experience was getting the opportunity to volunteer at the local hospital. I helped the older people in the clinic get up and stretch. After that I took on the task of prepping people before surgeries. Some of these people were very scared, but I always assured them they would be alright. I made beds, checked patients in, and really just loved the overall

When I go to Bible Study, I help out the little kids there and help them study. I also help around the school. For example, on the day of the Valentine's Dance, I stayed with my cousin and helped clean up after the dance even though I wasn't an NJHS member. I volunteered without hesitation. Also, the day of school orientation I helped my cousin (who is in the NJHS)give people their schedules. Sometimes when I finish all of my work early, I help the teachers. I ask them if they need help. I also help the custodians. I clean under the tables, so the custodian doesn't have to do it. That's basically what I do to help around the

Since the summer of eighth grade I have volunteered at Essentia Health Hospital making tie blankets for inpatients. These patients are able to take the blankets home with them when they are well enough to leave the hospital. Moreover, I volunteer at my local church for a once-a-month food share. I help unload the food from the truck, sort out the rotten produce, and distribute the food among the shareholders. Additionally, I clean up highways and trails as a part of Green Club ,and I partake in numerous other volunteer opportunities within my school

On Sunday, November 2 at 10:00am, I attended Shepherd’s Community Methodist church in Lakeland, Florida. It had been several weeks since I had attended church and I was looking forward to worshiping and learning from the message that would be delivered by the pastor. At a United Methodist Church the first Sunday is “Communion Sunday” and I was excited to take part in the sacrament of Holy Communion at the service. Pastor Mark Reynolds was the pastor that delivered the sermon titled “The Best Investment”.

Sure Pastor. I love the idea of a church wide time for revival. The back the school bash is that same week. Would it be possible to use one of those nights for the bash and the other two nights for the revival? This will minimize cost and effort. Also, Can I let the committee ( Bridgette, Natalie, Delphine, Nette, and Savanah) know to reschedule the groups that are coming to August?

This past month I got the opportunity to attend church with my friend Norbentina who is originally from Honduras. She attends Southwest Christian Church which is an all speaking Spanish congregation. I accompanied Norbentina to a Sunday morning service and as you can imagine it was quite different than what I’m usually use to.

I also volunteer in festivals at my community’s elementary schools such as Mission Crest and Cottonwood. There, I am in charge of games and engage with the little kids to make sure they having a good time. This helped me get to know the elementary schoolers and more about my community as a whole.

Every Summer, I volunteer with the CCD organization in my town which educates children about their religion. Since I graduated from the program, I thought it would be nice to give back to those who also wanted to know more about their religion. When I was there I assisted with classes, organized paperwork, and watched the kids during recess. One day I saw a little girl sitting on the playground crying, and I walked over to her to find out what happened. It turns out she had failed first grade and had to retake it again. She told me that her parents had moved to the United States from Spain and her grades were bad because she knew little English. She couldn’t get a tutor because her family didn't have enough money and bilingual tutors were too

Have you ever not liked doing something your parents wanted you to do? Well I use to, but it changed my life! When I was in sixth grade my mom use to make me go to church, and I did not like it. I remember after church was over I would come out in a bad mood because I did not want to go to church and it would ruin my mom’s day! Then we tried a new church, and it CHANGED my life!

As an American I am obligated to help my fellow citizen and my community. Grace Lee Boggs was an American philosopher, author, feminist, and social activist. She once said “You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.” We often want change but are not willing to cause it. As an individual I must first recognize my part in the community, then step up and start taking my duties to help my community seriously. Before I moved to West Virginia my church had a “Reformer's Unanimous” program, It helped addicts come off their addiction. We had a detention center right by our church, and a lot of the ladies would come over for the program. I used to volunteer

Interviewing several pastors can be eye opening in that you will begin to see different character qualities, disciplines and where they are in their spiritual journey. My intention was to interview several pastors, however, I was unable to obtain the responses needed to complete a study such as that. I did get to meet with one pastor, and I believe that it was truly difficult for him to answer most of the questions even after giving him some time to think about each question. My interview was with a very intelligent and spiritual man named Les Harvey. He is currently serving at the Church of the Highlands Greystone campus under many great leaders.