The Privilege of Helping Others

Friends who Volunteer are Special

Today I spent a few hours at our church with friends who make bed mats for people in Haiti. Many people there still need help after the 2010 disaster and we have the joy of making practical mats from colourful milk bags that would go on a dump if we do not use them.

They take a while to flatten cut into strips and loop into balls but we have great volunteers who come together each week to work at this Haiti project. And the added advantage is that we build friendships. The conversations are always lively and positive as well as helpful. After the preparation, some crochet the mats at Church and some take their balls home. It takes over 400 milk bags to make a three by six foot mat to use under a mattress. I have  learned to crochet- a skill I never had before.

We start our mornings with a prayer time for half an hour and , then we go downstairs to work at various tasks. Two of my friends even have their husbands involved. One cuts and another helps sort the donations, we get, by collecting from churches and schools and, today, from a local auto repair shop! Our friend who started all this has also made bags for school children and we fill them with supplies before taking them to one business man who personally delivers them to places in Haiti. Through writing up a story for our church paper, we have had more donations and more churches are showing an interest in making mats. There is so much joy in doing something for others. We also have fun eating lunch together once a month and conversations just flow.

I find the same joy when I volunteer for our local Hospice. For 23 years I have been visiting oncology patients and more recently, doing more pastoral care work or recording their life stories. I am always buoyed up by meetings at Hospice where we seek to give hope to those who are very ill. All the volunteers, I meet through this work, love to help the sick. We support each other and find that our interests are similar. I find many volunteers have a strong personal faith that motivates them and strengthens their commitment. They are people with loving hearts who spend hours helping beyond the call of duty. It is great to be one of them.

We also learn so much from visiting the sick and come to realize how much courage people have when they face terminal illness. It’s amazing how cheerful some patients are and how they often ask about how we are as we visit. They really appreciate one on one time and often request prayer as they know I am only too willing to share with them. It is an honour to serve in this capacity of trust.

My own faith was recently bolstered by a patient’s wonderful story of how she received peace and joy from God. Before she came into the Hospice home, she went to church and that Sunday, she felt someone come to sit with her. While she listened to the Bible readings, she felt a holy presence. At the end of the sermon she was so overcome by joy that she rushed up and hugged the priest! He later told her that his eyes went off his usual text and he just felt the Holy Spirit giving him the words. They certainly were meant for this patient. She just kept saying, “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!” Her joy is infectious and I received this because I volunteer. We were able to thank God together and sing songs . We had a wonderful time.

I will always recommend volunteering in whatever way you may be led. I’d love to hear your stories too. The world is a better place because we are prompted to volunteer and ,in so doing, the friends we make become so special.

Volunteering makes Life more Worthwhile

These days there is a great need for volunteers in all walks of life. Your  life can soon be full of interest if you volunteer. It can be rewarding for anyone young or old. Are you bored at home? Get out and offer help in an area that interests you. You will meet many interesting people and enrich your own life.

I know this because I have been volunteering for over 22 years. I followed my interest in music and helped with outreach to schools that a local orchestra wanted us to do. I used my writing skills to encourage people to attend concerts and I helped to write guides for school performances. My other interest is in helping those seriously ill. After a training course, I was able to work with the Hospice and through it, I have made good friends and contributed to our community. Touching the lives of people in hospital is a privilege and I am often moved by their courage and tenacity as they deal with cancer or serious heart conditions. Listening to their stories allows them to feel better for telling all they have been through and I feel I help. Doing pastoral care for my church, I have opportunities to help anyone who needs prayer; that is special. My own life is enriched by the wonderful people I meet in these ways.

This past year, our church has a group of volunteers making bed mats out of milk bags for people in Haiti . One enthusiastic friend started this going and now we have many people collecting used milk bags (and saving them from the dumps!), a few men who help cut the bags into strips and women and young people who loop them together and make balls ready for those who crochet the mats.There is a great need for mats in places where there have been disasters so we are all delighted to be involved in this Haiti project. Many willing hands have spent hours crocheting over 80 bed mats and 24 smaller squares for seats for children to use . The mats are easy to clean and soon dry in a hot climate.

We were encouraged recently by hearing a talk from a business man who volunteers his expertise, time and money to help the poorest people in Haiti since the earthquake of 2010. He travels there 3 or 4 times a year to distribute the  food, medicines, clothes and goods he has encouraged people to donate. He loads up a 40 foot container, ships it out to Haiti and collects it there to give to those who need it. His volunteering has expanded as he has seen other needs for water purification tablets, wheelchairs and appliances to help an orphanage. He told us that his business has been blessed by what he has done for others in Haiti. God has used his talents and allowed his business to thrive during a recession.

Meeting someone like that is a real incentive to get involved in volunteering. I also met a fine lady who spent just under three months in an orphanage in Kenya where children are placed when parents die of aids or when they are abandoned. She came back with wonderful stories of the work being done there and the joy she felt as a volunteer.

Just think of the world-wide organisations that have began because people cared. Doctors without Borders is manned by volunteer doctors who go in when disaster hits any country; Oxfam and UNICEF still use many volunteers in all aspects of their work. Our world relies on such loving giving people. We would be lost without them! Just recently Canadian Hydro men went to help the people of New York and they worked round the clock. Most of that work was paid but the long hours were willingly volunteered. We can admire men and women who go beyond the call of duty.

I am sure you have experienced the good work of volunteers in your own community and, through the media, you’ve read about world-wide helpers. Human beings want to reach out to each other and volunteering makes us better people for doing just that. I know I want to keep on doing it as long as I can.

Difficult days- do we include them or not?

Recently, a good friend died and it made me think of those difficult times that are hard to talk about. Do we avoid them in a memoir or not? I think if we can find something positive from the experience of a serious illness, a family death or a misunderstanding, it could add some value to our story.

We may have learned from an unpleasant happening; we all learn from our mistakes. I remember a boy whom I did not like chasing me around on his bike when I went home from playing tennis in our village.I complained to my mother  who knew about his family. She suggested that, instead of saying ,”I can’t like him or talk to him” that I should try. One Friday, I did stop riding and said hello to him. He said nothing so I asked how he was and why he enjoyed cycling. He murmured that it was how he passed the time. My attitude to him changed because I had faced a situation that bothered me. I also learned a little compassion.

I know life wasn’t easy for my mother after my father had his back broken but her determination to give us a good education ,made her work long hours in her shop and become very successful buying what people needed during and after WWII. It was difficult for my father who was always in pain and dealing with his pain and emotions was one way I learned how to understand others who suffer.

Wartime brought me many years of separation from my parents. Today war has left many homeless and in far worse condition than my brother and I were with relatives who loved us. Living with older uncles gave me opportunities to hear stories of their past and a fascinating story about how my grandfather came to live in the Welsh valley. I loved those stories so, out of an unhappy separation, I discovered something about my family’s adventurous spirit and I bonded with cousins who would normally have lived miles away.

The pain of losing family and friends is still there, especially one close friend I lost when we were both young mothers and when I felt she had so much to give. She had a brain tumour at 32 years old and died within two years. Her courage when she went blind and her joy  with our visits to her on some days was amazing. I still miss her but I feel privileged to have experienced her friendship and her acceptance of her illness. I think I will always include these difficult times in my own story because it was through them that I learned about courage, love and some understanding of other people.