From Geoffrey to you; Service with a smile!

Tuesday May 12, 2009

Service with a smile

I like to serve and volunteer my time; most of you probably realize that. I have volunteered and fundraised more times and ways that I can remember or count. I have participated in walkathons, runs, danceathons, can drives, door to door fundraising, work with orphans in Mexico, construction, washing the feet of homeless people, serving food at homeless shelters, working with underprivileged children, speaking at youth camps, I have co-led thanksgiving and Christmas feast for the homeless, collected goods for orphans, made visitations to convalescent homes, and the list goes on. Regardless on how long we have been acquainted, I am sure I have probably hit you up for money for some worthy cause or attempted to persuade you to volunteer with me somewhere. I have a problem though; sometimes I think my service has an underlining selfish ambition.

When I volunteer my goal is to meet a need and try to make a difference, but I always seem to get something out of it. Of course you are going to get something out of working towards some worthy cause, but there is a difference when I sign up to help versus signing up to give myself a pat on the back. It is cool to say at the end of the day that I have fed the homeless or encouraged underprivileged children and I am left with this indescribable fullness and self worth at the end of the day. It seems like a win-win situation because I get something out of it and the worthy cause or organization gets the help or donations, but it isn’t as much of a win as it could be. It is easy to sign up to volunteer and say I want to help in any area, but really only mean that you are willing to do the glamorous and fun aspect of volunteering. I always want to do the work that everyone else sees, I want to wipe boogers from the face of a starving child, hand out food to a homeless man, help a crippled child learn to walk, V.B.S., these are the things that are at the face of volunteer opportunities; the things that everyone is more than willing to help out doing. I feel like these are the things that I do that make more of a difference in my life, in making me feel good about myself, than in actually making a difference in the life of another or meeting the need of an organization. Yes I am making a difference for the cause or organization, but I am meeting a small need that everyone wants to do instead of actually surrendering myself to be used in a way that benefits them the most. I do the jobs that make me feel the best and that I consider the most important instead of the ones that are actually in the direst need of help. I know I am not alone in this.

For those of you who don’t know my friends and I started a non-profit organization called H.A.N.D.S. (www.helpingallnations.com) which focuses on feeding the homeless while trying to help get them out of their situation as well as working with needy families and orphans in Mexico. Every Sunday morning, now in three separate locations (woot woot go team), we bring out barbeque grills and cook the homeless personalized omelets, cut hair, wash feet, give away clothing, provide bicycle repair and hold a church service. We have been able to lend a hand to literally hundreds upon hundreds of people in need and have been blessed with hundreds of volunteers. Whenever we get a new volunteer it seems like they think with the same mentality that I do; I want to cook eggs cause I feel that is the most important part and it would make me feel the best. Everyone always wants to cook an omelet or make pancakes for the homeless, which is great really it is, but that is just about the smallest part of our Sunday morning ministry. Cooking the food is the glamorous part of H.A.N.D.S. and is the part that we always seemed to have an overwhelmed amount of volunteers for, but when it comes to the behind the scenes work like organizing bins or making phone calls almost no one is willing to help. I have had people come up to me and tell me that they are ready and willing to serve on a Sunday morning, but they only mean that they are ready and willing to serve if I give them the job that they want; like cooking eggs versus showing up to organize our storage unit, I can guarantee we need more help organizing a storage unit than we do cooking an omelet. Why? Because as people we want to do the thing that they consider most important and that will make them feel the best, when I go to a soup kitchen I want to serve food instead of standing at the door collecting tickets, but that job is just as important as the others. I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad or call anyone out, this is just an observation that I have made over a few years and it is something that I see in myself and don’t like. I think that I if I volunteer my time that I should want to be put in the area where I am going to make the biggest difference and meet the greatest need whether that is doing the glamorous work or the grunt work that no one sees or hears about.

When I started planning this trip to Kenya that was one of my biggest concerns. One of the first things I told Stanley before I came was that I just want to serve whether I am working with an AIDS orphan or scrubbing a toilet; I just want to serve. I can come to Kenya and play with the kids and tell them about Jesus but that is the easy stuff for me and I know it would make a difference, but I think I can make an even bigger difference doing small things and the stuff no one else really wants to do. We have plenty of groups and people that are coming here and can work on that front, we need them there, but since I am here long term and God has already provided people to work on that front I can put my focus elsewhere. Today I spent the day working for Tumaini in the office, the majority of my time there was spent writing down the names and children and their schools from one piece of paper to another. Most people wouldn’t travel ten-thousand miles to write down the names of children and their schools from one piece of paper to the next, I bet that most people would want to deliver food, play with the kids and do V.B.S. which is great and needs to be done, but I think what I did today was just as important if not maybe even more important. Since we have groups that come and are going to be doing work with the children I am free to work on another front and use my gifts and talents elsewhere. Working and playing with the children is SO important, and don’t get me wrong I definitely do play with the children, but there are plenty of other important areas that I feel I need to put my focus. When I go to Mexico to work at the orphanage I am signed up to just do grunt work, I’m not playing with the children or working with them I will be doing construction and digging holes, the stuff no one else wants to do, but it is important stuff. One of my goals when I came here was to do some of the stuff that no one else wants to do knowing that whatever my contribution was, whether cleaning a toilet or speaking in front of orphans, that I played an important role in something bigger than myself. I want to serve in a position where my abilities are going to make the biggest difference.

I encourage you, as I encourage myself, that when you volunteer your time to an organization or cause that you try to find the important things that need to get done that no one else wants to do.

Asante Sana,

Mwendwa

Prayer Requests:
I think I ate bad food yet again… stomach problems
Carro and her surgery
Funds for different needs for Tumaini

Randoms:
Let’s say that you and I are walking side by side. I like to tap your shoulder on the opposite side that I am on in some attempt to fool you and get you to look the opposite direction… apparently you aren’t supposed to do that to someone of the opposite sex here… it is a big “No-No.” I got in trouble for it.
I prayed for Esther and her malaria went away
Since I told that girl that I’m not going to marry her whenever she sees me we both get embarrassed and blush ha ha ha… awkward!
You can buy a bunch of Kenyan tea for a buck

Word of the Day
Asante kwa ukarimu wako
Uh-sss-on-tay qwa oo-car-emu wa-co
Thank you for your hospitality

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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