Discuss Board
Discuss a volunteering experience that you have had. Describe it. What was good/bad about it? What
caused you to become involved? (No citation needed.)
God bless,
Donald
My youngest daughter attends an institution that frequently takes historical and nature outings; of
course, this was before Corvid-19. The excursions required bus drivers for the trip, and to alleviate the
cost, the school requested volunteer parent drivers. So, I took all the required driving tests, and later,
inducted into the hall of volunteer drivers. By volunteering, I was able to kill two birds with one stone;
spend some time with my daughter friends\peers, and as Dr. Steve Vandegriff said, be seen and be known
amongst the faculty and other students. Creating an atmosphere of trust and remembering people and
names made it easier to build on relationships.
There was one particular trip that stood out amongst a few. On a specific outing, I volunteered to
drive and supervise about 18 students to a Medieval Times event. The event entertained the students,
starting with the entry into an eleventh-century castle with jousting, some incredible horsemanship, and
lunch. The faculty was very friendly and even allowed me to pray with everyone on the bus, each time,
before departure.
Overall, the experience was excellent. I felt God’s presence and was able to relax and interact
with the students and made small talk with the teachers. Being myself was very important as I was
relaxed and allowed the Holy Spirit to guide me. I did more listening since I didn’t know as many
students and only one staff member. Asking questions also permitted me to build on a few students who
were having noticeable corrective issues and the reticent students. I later found out that the students gave
rave reviews to my daughter of her father. I’ve been with the school system for the past 3 years as a
volunteer.
Discuss Board
This is a hard one for me to choose from. I have volunteered for things all my life. I
was in Girl Scouts and 4-H as a kid so being a volunteer was instilled in me at the age of six.
I am going to choose the seven years I was a Youth Director. I was not paid for this. All
my time was given freely. I would have to say that this was some of the best years of my life. I
started at one church with a group of girls age ranging from eight to eighteen. Most of these girls
were from the Housing project and African American. My church was solely white. We were
called the Three G’s standing for God’s Good Girls. They picked the name. I spent three years
with these girls and nine years later I am still in contact.
I had to leave that church when my late husband became a pastor of another church, so
we had to move. I became the Youth Director of this church and spent the next four years with
the teens from this church. Not only did we do Bible study, but we went to a statewide youth
rally called WOW three years in a row. Took three youth on a mission trip to Joplin, MO to do
clean up after the tornado hit and destroyed most of the town. We went to several Christian
concerts and saw God’s Not Dead 2 in the theater.
For both groups, we did fundraising projects so the youth, nor the parents ever had to
pay for anything out of their own pockets. This helped teach them that if they wanted to do
something, then they had to earn the money to pay for it. It also allowed several of them to be
able to attend things when their parents did not have the money for them to participate.
The bad part of this was having to leave. The first group because of moving, the
second group because of the death of my husband and having to move. But I would not trade a
moment of getting to know these beautiful kids.
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Hello, my sister,
I enjoyed reading your post; your involvement with the youth indeed left a mark on many
young souls. It is also very heartfelt, for being a Youth Director for seven years as a non-paid
staff, funding of any kind is a tremendous asset to the student ministry; however, I see God
provided, as He always does.
I’m looking to impact our youth in such away by escorting our students on an
international mission trip one day. I’ve led a few mission trips; however, all were over the age of
twenty-one. This past summer, I led fourteen students to an MFuge camp in South Philidiphia
Discuss Board
God bless,
Donald
and was looking forward to taking the students to this summer to MFuge - South Carolina.
Nevertheless, corvid-19 had other ideas.
Anyway, thank you for encouraging me; I can now focus on a student international
mission trip for possible 2021-22. I will begin praying on leading or helping someone guide our
youth on such a journey.
