My home is my mission

     

     Volunteers have been honoured this week, as communities have been celebrating National Volunteer Week April 10 to 16, 2016. 

     It's been said, "Volunteers are the roots of strong communities." 

     Volunteering is about making a meaningful contribution by helping other individuals and the community at large. Informal volunteering can be as simple as helping out a neighbour or family friend. 
     

     It could involve helping with garden work, grocery shopping, running errands for the elderly or shut-in, counselling or giving emotional support to a neighbour or friend in the midst of a difficult situation. 

     

     Those who choose to volunteer for their community have innumerable options — volunteering in critical services such as firefighters or Search and Rescue crews; delivering meals to housebound seniors; or something as simple as helping to keep our neighbourhoods clean and safe. 

     People volunteer for an endless variety of reasons. It could be — to acquire new skills, meet new people, or just to give back to their community. 

     Of course, volunteering makes a huge difference in the lives of others, but the benefits for the volunteers is huge! 

To name a few: 

• 1. It decreases the risk of depression. The social interaction with others helps one experience what we might call the happiness effect. We're told it's similar to the feeling after a good workout, as it releases dopamine within the brain. 
• 2. It helps both your body and mind to be active at the same time. 
• 3. It improves one's self-confidence. 
• 4. It also reduces stress levels. 
• 5. By giving of your time in service to others, it gives one a sense of meaning and purpose for living, like none other.

     I just returned from my weekly volunteer effort at our local Bibles for Missions Thrift Store. 

     I am one of over 75 volunteers who process thousands of items, many of which are sold daily in our store. 

     I'm excited to be a part of a joint ministry with the Canadian Bible League serving Canada and 45 countries worldwide. We pass on some of these donations to other organizations within our city. 

     The friendship and camaraderie I've experienced from our manager Susan and fellow workers: Ev, Beverley, Betty, Sandra and others, makes my weekly volunteer experience a delight!  

     Recently, as I was reminiscing, I began recalling a particular season when I felt quite overwhelmed with all that life was demanding of me.

     The decade of the Seventies was the busiest in the history of our family. 

     Our four children were each attending a different school — from elementary to college, often needing car rides. 

     Choir, band, soccer, basketball, music lessons and part-time jobs all seemed to require endless chauffeuring by Mom. 

     Mom was also completing night school courses herself, while simultaneously operating a preschool business and heading up the preschool department at church. 

     It was a time when I often felt unappreciated by my family, I never had time left over to offer volunteer service or to help out my neighbours. 

     At that time, I came across an insightful message in a pocket pamphlet, entitled, My Home is My Mission. "Of course!"— I now understood it. The words helped me to understand that I was exactly where the Lord wanted me and of Him who had placed me there. 

     I began to realize my mission couldn't be more important!  

   

      The reason I tell you all of this, is that the memories of my past have helped me to realize just how God has graciously blessed me with additional years, good health and an abundance of energy. 

     Perhaps, it's so that I can finally get to fulfill some of those earlier desires to be a community volunteer. 

     As the needs among my neighbours and friends arise each day, I have an opportunity to help. I need to remain sensitive to those who daily cross my path.  

     "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37: 4

— beulah