Tuesday, March 9, 2010

# compassion # giving back

Giving Back


I had originally planned on writing about this come the weekend, but my heart is leading me to write about it today. I'm sure that some of you have seen that Kristen, over at We Are THAT Family, is in Kenya right now. She's blogging her trip with Compassion International. Every time I read one of her posts, my heart aches and I sit, staring at my screen, with tears running down my face. I so often forget just how lucky I am to have what I have and when I read her posts, I am reminded just how good we have it here.

The more I read her posts, the more I'm called to do something. While I would love to go to one of these countries and work with these children, I don't know that I could do that right now. However, I can do something here at home. I can volunteer. I can get out of my house, even if it's for a few hours each month, and I can help someone.

With that in mind, I visited Habitat for Humanity last Friday. I briefly mentioned it in my post yesterday. They're one of the few organizations that I know of in this area. The truth is, I felt drawn to stop in there. When I went into Hastings, I had no intention of going there. I also had no intentions of eating lunch at the restaurant that I went to. It was in that restaurant that I was presented with the chance to do something. Looking down at my placemat, I saw an ad for the ReStore and it said they were always looking for volunteers. I don't know why, but I decided to stop in. I think they were as surprised as I was. I guess they don't get very many "non required to" volunteers. Most of their volunteers are people who have been court ordered to do community service.

It turns out that volunteering there is really easy. I have to fill out a simple form, put my name down on the calendar and show up. They're not building any homes right now, but they are looking for someone to work in their ReStore, manning the cash register and helping out with any customers. To be honest, I'm really excited about this. Their store is a bit of a dump and I'm hoping that they'll allow me to organize it and clean it up some. Even if they don't, I'm at least giving back and helping others and that does my heart good.

Will you give back? There are so many opportunities out there and some you can do right from home. Have you considered sponsoring a Compassion child? It's amazing how much of a difference you can make in a child's life with the amount of money you might spend on one family dinner out. We can't afford it right now, but trust me, it is on my list of things we will do.

Who knows, maybe in another year, it will be me writing from some far off location while I help make a difference in the lives of some sweet children.
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1 comment:

Karen said...

Can't wait to read that post! We sponsor a child in Uganda - her name is Josephine, and she raises chickens! She is going to give me one when I go to visit her. I don't know if I'll ever make it, but I know I'm helping her in the meantime. She appears healthy in her last picture, and she has grown since we 'adopted' her!

Hope they let you help organize the ReStore. Ours is in need of some organizations, too, and that would make a big difference!

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