“As I see God’s goodness and greatness, I am filled with love and life and light, which is the fountain of living waters.”
Laura Lane from ‘I Touch the Heavens’
Last week I attended a lovely retreat with 3 other beautiful ladies. We learned and grew together and got to know each other.
When I casually mentioned that I was on a mission after high school, one of the ladies asked me about it. They were surprised to learn that I served in California. They thought maybe I had gone to a third world country. I explained that I served in the Sacramento Valley and moved around to 5 different areas in 18 months.
The next question was “what did I do there?” I taught and did service projects. My companion and I and sometimes partnering up with other missionaries, we provided service to the local families and service organizations. We helped put up a fence for a family to make the area safe for their young children. We helped at the local emergency food depot by stocking shelves or distributing food to poor families and the homeless. We helped out at local spay and neuter clinic by cleaning cages.
We visited the sick and elderly, helped prepare meals and tutored a young student in math.
In the areas I served there was a great deal of poverty. Families living in homes under a couple hundred square feet that were meant to be temporary construction housing for the men who built the Shasta dam in the 1940’s or living in campgrounds in 20 foot travel trailers.
No matter who we served, we came to love and appreciate them.
I discovered that there is need everywhere. We don’t have to go to South America or Africa or Syria or Haiti in order to make a difference in the world. It comes down to small acts of kindness and helping hands to make life just a little bit better for someone or their family.
What have you done lately to be of service in your community? What sort of things would you like to get involved in and when will you start? What can you do to become a beacon of light and hope to those around you?
“As I gratefully receive and share that love with others, it again fills me with more love and life and light, and it heals me and others, springing up into everlasting life. I can then become a beacon of light and hope.”
Laura Lane from ‘I Touch the Heavens’