Being a volunteer member was the best experience I’ve ever had. Throughout the community service time my perspective has changed even though it was only 30 hours of community service. My community service place was at PACS, which is a place that sells some used clothes, shoes, and other useful stuff at low prices to homeless people or poor people. My job was to organize all the clothes and clean it up (goods and processing). Even though most of their stuff were used, we needed to clean it and only keep the best quality items. There were about 20 -40 volunteers’ total at PACS.
Many people were willing to help others and they were real friendly. Since our customers were mostly homeless people or poor people, I have learned how I can help the homeless people. Even though I can’t help them with money, I realized that I can use my little time to help them. Before I started my community service, I couldn’t fully understand other people’s situation. Honestly, I did not love them, especially those people who wear dirty clothes and people who smell bad. However, while I was serving them, I figured it out that all people are the same. It doesn’t matter what their situations was or what they look like.
There are no differences between homeless people and us. In Matthew 19:19, it says “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Also I learned how to be a positive person in every situation. I was not fully thankful in my situation. I had few things that I hated in my life. However, now I know that I am a blessed person just like others. God has given us a great environment and we are living through God’s gift. Even those people who are starving, they are always smiling unlike me. I felt embarrassed in how I felt like how I didn’t like my life. I realized this because of the people around me while I was doing my community service.
Some volunteers were handicapped people and some of them were elderly people, but they were always smiling and willing to help others every single time. I learned big lessons from them. Sometimes I didn’t want to do my community service because I was too lazy, but whenever I went to my community service I felt accomplished. Whenever I finished my daily community service, I felt I learned something throughout the community service. I knew that the community service would help me to shape my character by promoting responsibility because it requires responsibility, respectfulness and leadership.
It can also help me to learn to care about people other than myself. By working for others, community service has helped me to develop my leadership skills and respectfulness to others that I didn’t have before. Also, I realized how important it is to work with groups. It was too much work for myself; many volunteers helped me out whenever I did work by myself. In Romans 12:20-21, it says, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. This is one of my favorite verses and it explains about how community service can help others. Honestly, I was not interested in community service at all.
When I heard that City Christian required 30 hours of community service, I was not happy. However, I realized that I wanted to do my community service and to not think of it as a mandatory requirement. At first, it was too much work for me to help others; however, when people say ‘thank you’ to me, my heart overflowed with joy and I was very proud. I also learned how a volunteer feels when they serve others. It totally influenced my thought.
The community service project is different from other school educations. The community service can teach us how to love others and how to fulfill our heart with joy. I am really thankful for this opportunity, if it was not mandatory, I probably wouldn’t have done it for sure and I wouldn’t have been be able to know how to love others and how to serve others. I am willing to do other community services that I like to do. It was such a blessing to help others and serve others with love. We should not be proud thinking we are better than poor people. In Proverbs 28:6.
It says “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse. He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poo”. As the Bible verse says, rich people are not better than poor people if they ignore poor people because of their outfit or how they look. Everyone should keep in mind that we are all the same people. Throughout the community service, I realized many things that I mentioned earlier. Everyone is a blessing in the name of God. Community service is the best way to learn how to love others and how to serve others.
