Today is all about service projects.
Ever since I was young my mom and grandparents instilled in me the importance of giving back. I would go to church work days on Saturday with my pop and help clean up the church and older people's homes/yards. Each year on my birthday my mom and I would go through my clothes and toys and donate the too small clothes and toys that I did not need. Then every Thanksgiving and Christmas I would get to help put meals together for the shut ins and go deliver them with my pop. I have so many great memories of me and my pop just driving through the country delivering meals.
Now my grandparents run our church's Helping Hand Ministry. Helping Hands is a food and clothing bank for people in the community. This is a truly AMAZING ministry! Rising Star has a population of 800 people and Helping Hands has yet to ever run out of food or clothing. People in the community continuously give every single month. Helping Hands is open two days a week and my grandparents say about 20 to 30 people come in each day they are open. I am just so proud of them! They continue to do great things.
In college I volunteered at Good Samaritan Ministries in Brownwood. Good Samaritan services the people of Brown county and it is a food and clothing bank and they also help with bills for people that are in need. I loved my time there and often worked in the clothing section. I mostly sorted clothes or worked the register.
One year in college my social work class took a weekend trip to Waco and were homeless for the weekend. We worked with Mission Waco and I had a great time.
We were only allowed three personal possessions, I had a tooth brush, my jacket, and my sleeping bag. It was October after all. We were taken to a Good Will and told to pick new clothes out and new shoes. There were about 100 students from all over and we were only given a couple of minutes to find those items. Needless to say I have a big foot and got stuck with men's shoes.
My friend got a good look, where I got a skirt and men's shoes.
We then spent the weekend walking the streets of Waco looking for food and resources. We also went to a lower income apartments and played with the children.
One thing I will NEVER forget is when we were walking up to the apartments there was a large dumpster and there were two boys about 8 years old, going through all of the trash looking for coke cans. When asked what they were doing they said that they go through the trash and look for cans so they can sell them and have some extra money for food.
Y'all..... my heart hurt. Just that morning I was complaining about it being cold, feeling dirty, and how I thought it was a silly thing to be homeless for a weekend.
Little did I know, how the Lord was going to work in my heart.
I came back from that weekend with a new outlook and often bring up my experience with others to share my heart and hopefully bring some awareness to this population.
An article about the trip and my thoughts was written Here
While I was working at Child Protective Services, my volunteering was lacking. I hate to say that, but it did.
Each year we do gifts from the Angel Tree and donate to the rainbow rooms at CPS. I have way too many magazine subscriptions and I donate all the magazines to the local domestic violence shelter.
This year I am hoping to join the county's Child Welfare Board and work with foster children. I am so excited about this new opportunity!
Last but not least thanks to Andrea and her great post about Cards for Hospitalized Kids, I would have never known about this great organization.
Adrian makes cards with his jr. high kids at school a couple of times a year and I use it with the kids at each of our parent trainings and support groups. Not only are you brighting someones day by sending them a card, but it is also a great teaching opportunity!
I can't wait to read about all of the service projects every one else is doing!
"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."
~ Princess Diana
XOXO ~ JulieAnn
