Today is my last official posting for Less of Me Month because I don’t post on Sundays. It’s hard to believe January is over and February has arrived. Earlier this month Rachel Paxton sent an article that I posted about a a child they sponsor through World Vision. Yesterday she sent me another article about mission work that I want to share with you here.

My Week Working at a Rescue Mission

by Rachel Paxton

Four years ago our church’s high school youth group travelled to a neighboring state to work in a rescue mission for a week. I decided to go along to help…youth groups are always looking for parent volunteers!

Working at the rescue mission had a powerful impact on my life. It wasn’t just the mission itself, but the entire trip. It’s not easy to work with a large group of people you barely know and to give up your personal preferences for the sake of the group. The trip was supposed to impact the lives of the teens, as well as the people we helped, but it definitely affected the adult leaders also.

While we were on the trip I wrote down some of my thoughts that I thought might be worth sharing. If you haven’t experienced anything like this before, you should consider getting out into your community with your teens and showing them how they too can impact other people’s lives. You won’t regret it.

Day 1:

“I was really dreading the ride here because of how long we had to spend in the car. The 14 1/2 hours we spent in the car seemed like only 3-4 hours. I spent a lot of the time getting to know one of the boys I hadn’t talked to before. That night we all slept soundly and I woke up to a flat air mattress.”

Day 2:

“Today we went to church with our host church. We spent the afternoon shopping for groceries at Costco. In the evening we had communion and had sharing time, and many of the kids stood up and shared their hearts, more than I’ve ever seen at once, and more than a few who don’t normally share.”

Day 3:

“Today my daughter woke up with a fever of 101 degrees. She spent all day sleeping while we went to the rescue mission. Her fever broke in the afternoon and she joined us for dinner and the chapel service. We spent most of the day sorting through and re-organizing a food storage room at the mission. We trapped two mice and two of the boys had fun catching and killing moths. Our youth put on the chapel service at the mission and one of the boys did a great job sharing the message. I heard he wants to go to seminary. That’s so cool! I heard we get showers tomorrow.”

Day 4:

“My daughter worked in the mission kitchen today while my group worked at the food bank. We sorted through huge cartons of food, dividing them up and stacking them on pallets. In the afternoon we formed an assembly line and packed almost 400 boxes with cereal, dry milk, vegetables, etc. The boxes will go to low-income elderly people. Two of the boys had fun playing on the forklift and conveyer belt. The crew worked really hard with hardly any breaks. It rained really hard most of the day.”

Day 5:

“Today our group worked in the mission kichen all day preparing meals, washing dishes, and cleaning. We served lunch to more than 100 homeless people. It took a long time to prepare all of the food and wash the dishes. This evening I rode in the outreach van that drives around the town almost every evening, handing out meals to homeless and poor people. Most of the stops were to low income housing and motels. There were a lot of moms with kids, and several of the men had been drinking heavily. Most everyone we talked to was very nice. The van also hands out shirts, hygiene kits, and blankets to people who need them.”

Day 6:

“Today we took the kids on a 12-mile rafting trip. A couple of times we stopped and the kids swam through the rapids. At another place they jumped off a small cliff into the river.”

Day 7:

“Today our group worked at the woman and family shelter. We made lunch, but spent most of the day hearing the life story of Henry, who runs the mission kitchen. His story was quite amazing. I couldn’t believe how much tragedy he had lived through.”

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of five. For resources for the Christian family, including parenting, toddler and preschool activities, homeschooling, family traditions, and more, visit http://www.Christian-Parent.com

Before I close I’d like to share what I have learned during Less of Me Month

1. Focusing on the needs of others is an intentional act. If I’m not careful it is extremely easy to get busy with the mundane things I do every day and forget to consciously look for ways to help others.  Most people with needs are not going to call you on the phone to tell you about them. If I really want to help others I have to keep my eyes focused beyond the path in front of me. Have you ever seen people on the beach searching for objects beneath the sand with a metal detector? Often folks try to hide their needs beneath the sand. We have to keep our “need detector” turned on and tuned in to the needs of others.

2. To whom much is given, much is expected. If we are among the blessed (and I am) then I should look for ways to share those blessings and do the best I can to help those less fortunate. Remember the story about Ghandi and his sandals?  Once he was trying to catch a train. He ran after it, and just managed to grab the rail and pull himself on board. but in the process, he lost one of his sandals. The men with him told him to come into the car, and they were astonished when they saw him take off his other sandal and throw it after the first one. They said, “Why did you do that?” Gandhi said, “Because now some poor man will come along and say, `Here’s a pair of sandals that I can use.’”

Less of Me Month taught me that I need to clean out my closet and start throwing sandals.

How about you? I’d love to hear which stories inspired your the most this month and if you feel changed in anyway from the things you’ve read. Please post your comments below!

To read another article I wrote about Less of Me month that appeared on Heartlight.org click on the following link. Monday I’ll share some BIG NanaHood news with you! It’s awesome news and I can’t wait to tell you about it! Until then have a great weekend!

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/201001/20100117_lessofme.html

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/201001/20100117_lessofme.html

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