Celebrate a Birthday With Hammers and Glue

Have you volunteered lately?

Last week for my daughter Annie’s birthday, we spent time as a family volunteering with the Salvation Army at the White Shield Center, a young women’s home in Portland, Oregon (http://goo.gl/wEQT5 ).  All of the family members in Portland, plus a few friends, spent the afternoon building bulletin boards for the girls who live at White Shield.

Annie was the one to come up with the idea of volunteering, and after a long day working together, I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend that time together.   I serve on a few different non-profit Boards and also support my brother who is a full-time missionary in South America, but it’s not that often that I get a chance to really go to work physically serving others.  What a refreshing treat it was!

As we all worked together at White Shield, we built relationships with the people we met (and strengthened our own relationships!); we gained perspective on our lives and on God’s grace, and we had fun too!

Us with our finished bulletin boards!

It reminded me that we all need to think about how we can serve those in need.  Monetary gifts and administrative leadership are good, great even, but sometimes there’s just no substitute for putting your hands and feet to work.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:10-11)