Fellow Parishioners, I want to share with you a wonderful and rewarding experience I had while volunteering here at All Saints. A joyful group of you were making and packing lunches for the downtown feeding program and having a fun time (children’s laughter will do that). Once completed, the 130 lunches were loaded into totes and placed in my car for delivery. David Curtis and I started on a delightful journey to three men’s and one women and children’s shelter.
Each of the shelters was quiet on this Saturday morning. The respective staff members were so thankful for the lunches and the several residents we saw were grateful and thanked us again and again.
At the Woman and Children’s shelter, the staff member was very well dressed, well-spoken and could be in a commercial as a successful business woman. As we spoke, she shared that she was a single mom just finishing her master’s degree in clinical social psychology and her daughter was just entering college. I immediately thought, whew, with so much going on, it must be a burden for her to be working here as well. I could not have been more wrong.
She and her daughter were “alumni” of that shelter. They had lived there when there was nowhere else for them to go. That shelter worked with them, helped them, gave them hope, gave them a path to a real home of their own. She was bursting with joy and life and love as she continued to speak of their journey and giving back. No, working there is no burden for her – it is pure joy! Her sharing of her story gave us the same feelings of joy and happiness. Our part was small in bringing lunches for residents, but the joy and love shared by her was huge. The entire rest of my day was filled with warmth and love.
We have all been involuntarily isolated for the past couple of years. Now, we all need to voluntarily reach out. We got out of the habit of being with others and volunteering and working together. Reach out to volunteer, reach out to help, reach out to reconnect with friends, reach out to neighbors, reach out within and outside of All Saints. The love, warmth and happiness you receive back will be immense.
Faithfully,
Mark Wilcox
Sr. Warden
