Volunteer Service Review
Love and happiness increase as much as we share. Shall we listen to vivid stories about volunteer services?
Love & Unity
I heard the news that we would have a Worldwide Blood Drive to Give Life Through the Love of the Passover. Just in time, it was my class-free day, so I joined it. Since it was a good opportunity to share God’s love, I willingly showed my intent to participate in it, but I was a little afraid. I’d never donated blood before, and when I thought of blood donation, all I could think of was a cold, scary needle. At the event, thanks to the members who welcomed me with smiles from the entrance, I could relax. I went into the bloodmobile, encouraged by the members’ cheer. I was afraid for a moment, but encouraged, seeing the members donating…
Goh Na-young from Busan, South Korea
A Small Good Deed, Big Touching Waves
The day before our cleanup, there was a heavy rain. We were worried that it was going to continue raining and make it hard for us to carry out our cleanup. However, it stopped raining and the skies were very clear the next day. We gathered at the cleanup venue with bright faces. The Taguatinga Park is in an area with a large floating population. This probably explains why there are so many cigarettes, snack wrappers, and big and small trash from the stores in the street. We divided teams to clean around the fountain, in the flower beds, streets, etc. We picked up trash even in the parts that people couldn’t reach because they were covered with thorn bushes…
The Brasilia Church in Brazil
With Mother’s Mind and Mother’s Hands
Around noon on April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. All of a sudden, everything began to shake, and it seemed like the sky was falling and the ground was sinking. The members who were having a peaceful Sabbath day were shocked by the violent shaking; they held on to the pillars or banisters, and some lost their balance and fell. I never knew how frightening an earthquake could be until that day. When the shaking stopped, we went out to look around. Thanks to God, there was almost no damage to the church building, and the members were all safe. However, so many places, including the downtown of Kathmandu, had been ruined; buildings collapsed helplessly, and countless people…
Tejendra Gautam from Kathmandu, Nepal
Volunteer Service, a Special Time
One Sunday in December, around two hundred student members, young adult members, male and female adult members from the Donghae, Samcheok, and Gangneung Zions gathered together in a hilly village by Mukho Port in Donghae, Gangwon Province, Korea. We gathered to deliver two thousand coal briquettes to four senior citizens who were living alone—five hundred coal briquettes to each one of them. This village has narrow and steep stairs, which even young people find it difficult to go up and down. How much harder it must be for senior citizens! When the weather gets cold, it becomes more difficult for them to get through winter because the coal briquette provision, essential for spending winter, is not smooth. No company wants…
Hong Sun-tae from Gangneung, South Korea
A Beautiful Mind
With the hope of giving our neighbors in need even a little bit of help so they could get through the winter, we planned a volunteer service to deliver the warmth of Mother’s love with Zion members. It was to visit senior citizens living alone and to clean and insulate their places. A community service center introduced us some elderly people and we were divided into a few teams. After promising that we would all gather at the senior citizen center of the village to clean up when finishing each team’s mission, we departed. My team arrived at the house of an old man who was slightly indisposed. Since our team leader had lived with her father-in-law, serving him, she…
Choi Yun-heui from Daegu, South Korea
In the Apple Orchard
Whenever the harvest season comes, farmers need a lot of helping hands. They are so busy that Koreans describe the situation this way: “Even a poker which is used for stirring the fire has no time to lie on the ground.” And also, they are always short-handed. Feeling sorry for farmers, one sunny Sunday, the brothers and sisters of Zion gathered together for a volunteer service at the farm. We went to an apple orchard located in Yeongju, Gyeongbuk Province. The orchard presented a great sight with red ripe apples. First, the owner of the orchard explained to us what we were supposed to do. He explained what we needed to be careful about when picking the apples and how…
Lee Sahng-hwa from Daegu, South Korea
At the Flood Recovery Site
At the end of this summer, the southern part of Korea was hit by regional torrential rains. Even people who had lived in Busan for a long time said that they had never seen that much rain. Since it was a sudden natural disaster, there was severe flood damage. Many houses were attacked by the flood; their furniture and appliances got covered with mud, and the stores located in the basement were flooded up to the knees, and it was hard to get the water out. All the store owners were at loss what to do. The officials of the town office were having a hard time because they were short-handed though many residents were asking for help. We went…
Wahng Ga-ram from Busan, South Korea
Digging Out Potatoes
On Sunday, May 25, we went out to help a potato farm as it was a harvest season. As you can find it everywhere nationwide, farming villages are shorthanded during their busy season. So we couldn’t miss the opportunity to lend a hand. About 30 members—male adults and students who spared their Sunday as well as female adults—gathered in Zion early in the morning. We set off for a potato farm located in Boepsong-ri, Dosan-myeon. The weather was cloudy, but we felt refreshed as if we were on a picnic. The potato farm was on a slant at the foot of a mountain. As rain was forecast in the afternoon, we decided to finish it as soon as possible, and…
Kim Dong-ho From Tongyeong, South Korea
Giving Love in a Lunch Box
I am a young adult—a youth like the dew of the dawn with full of energy. But it sometimes puts me to shame and I feel sorry to people around me. At home, I just eat at the table that my mom prepares; and in Zion, members older than me take care of me. Mother says that it is more blessed to give love than to receive. However, I was accustomed to receive and so I felt ashamed. At any time, I wanted to share the love, which I had received more than I deserved, with many. In this past March, I finally had a chance: Young adults in my Zion organized the Wow Mom volunteer service team and planned…
Lee Si-won from Seoul, South Korea
Good Deeds Open People’s Hearts
We, the Wolpi Church in Ansan, clean up streets every month. Since we don’t carry out volunteer services in a cursory way, residents, store owners, and street cleaners near the church compliment us. This time, we cleaned up Seongpo Art Park and Wolpi Park. We picked up garbage not only inside the parks but also on the streets where there are many stores. There were cigarette butts more than other rubbish. While we were busy cleaning, a driver who delivers live fish to nearby restaurants said something to the one who was smoking at a passenger seat. “Those who throw away cigarette butts should go to the Church of God. Why don’t you join the church?” I thought he said…
Yu Hui-sun from Ansan, South Korea
We Share the Warmth of Love
My husband and I volunteered to deliver coal briquettes. I was filled with emotions as it had been a long time since I had last attended that volunteer service due to some reasons. On the day before the event, with great excitement I told our members that I would do the most work at the site. Then they replied, “You can say that when you get there,” with a knowing smile. The next day, after arriving at the site, I realized what their smiles meant. The village was located on a steep slope near the sea. I had to hold rails to walk up the stairs. It looked difficult to deliver even a single briquette up the slope. I saw…
Kim Hyeon-kyeong from Gangneung, South Korea
Dusting Out Every Nook and Corner
The Delaware Zion members cleaned several playgrounds in Newark on the last Sunday of January. The playgrounds were located in a good neighborhood, and so we thought it wouldn’t take much work to clean up. But it turned out they were not sanitary at all. A few playground rides were covered with much dust and stains that we couldn’t tell what their original colors were. We immediately set out to clean up and disinfect the rides. Soon, they regained their original colors. The thought of children who would play in the clean playgrounds made us smile. While cleaning the playgrounds, we came to think that no matter how great facilities are, they become useless if not well taken care of.…
The Church of God in Delaware, OH, U.S.
Better Is Two than One, Three than Two
You can often see trash and graffiti in many streets of Recife, Brazil. Regular cleanups were needed, but it was more urgent to change the way people think about the environment. That’s why we visited a TV station before the cleanup. The broadcasting company viewed our event positively that it decided to cover our street cleanup. A reporter came on the day of our cleanup. We cleaned streets diligently, hoping to raise environmental awareness and to encourage public participation, which was captured on camera. The next morning, however, the news was not broadcasted at the scheduled time. We were disappointed, thinking it had been edited. But that evening, we got all cheered up; the news was aired in the evening…
The Recife Church in Brazil
Volunteer Service = Joy² + Thankfulness²
I heard the news that the college students of our church were to do a street cleanup in the afternoon on a weekday. I eagerly wanted to participate, but I had a job without flexibility. The opportunity came to me who had been envious; young adult workers, too, decided to do a street cleanup on a Sunday. I earnestly waited for that day, counting down the days with excitement. On the morning of the cleanup, we, young adult workers, gathered around the Cheonggyecheon Stream with twinkling eyes. We held a short meeting, made teams, and moved to each designated cleanup area. While we were diligently picking up trash, all of a sudden, there was a really bad smell. It was…
Park Su-bin from Seoul, South Korea
The Most Beautiful Mind, Devotaion For Life
A few months ago, some members from the Lima Church in Peru donated noodles, rice, sugar, oil, and water to volunteer fire fighters. When we asked what kind of food they needed, they answered with excitement, “We all like noodles because it’s easy and simple to cook.” Fire fighters were very satisfied, receiving our donation, and they gave many thanks to Elohim God. The reason we had been motivated to donate food was because volunteer fire fighters live in poverty; nobody is paid. We already knew the reality, but by visiting the fire station and offering the donations, we were able to understand how difficult their lives were more deeply. Most of the equipment that the fire fighters had were…
Elton Wilson Zelaya from Lima, Peru
Helping Ginger Harvest
When it was still early in the morning, I went to Zion in a hurry because we planned to go to the city of Andong and help harvest gingers. Gingers are one of the essential ingredients of kimchi and are good for hot tea to prevent catching a cold during winter. We were excited at the thought of digging out the useful roots with our hands. Since the brothers and sisters had already been there a couple of times, they seemed to be used to the ginger harvest; they were joyful as if they were going to their grandparents. As for me, I hadn’t been able to join them until this year because I had to take care of my…
Choi Yun-hee from Daegu, South Korea
Working Together Voluntarily
We, the members from the Cape Town Zion and the Bellville Zion, rolled up their sleeves to clean the streets in the downtown of Cape Town. When we went there, the downtown looked clean but there were lots of weeds and trash right outside of the downtown. The members made teams for the regions that the street cleaners usually could not cover. We picked up litter in the street in perfect order and pulled the thick weeds. We didn’t mind going into the storm drain to take trash out. After cleaning, we could see that the streets became so much cleaner that they couldn’t be even compared with how it was before. When the members of the Church of God…
Park Eun-gyeong from Cape Town, Rep. of South Africa
The Reason for Donating Blood
Before becoming a high school student, there was something I wanted to do most. It was blood donation. I wanted the souvenirs I could get after the blood donation, and liked the fact that donating blood once is acknowledged as four hours of volunteer service at school. After I became old enough to donate blood, I participated in the blood donation in earnest. Thanks to that, in my high school, I gained the honor of “blood donation hero,” a title given to a person who donates blood five or more times. Even until then, however, I was unaware that my blood saves lives. Meanwhile, the “Blood Drive to Give Life through the Love of the Passover” was held at the…
Park Min-ji from Seoul, South Korea
The Park Cleaned and Beautified by the Church of God
There are two small children’s parks near the church. One of them was almost abandoned. The rides and the exercise facilities at the park were too old to use, and the dense shrubs didn’t allow people to even look inside it. The residents were reluctant to go to the park. Although it was called “children’s park,” it was actually a crime-ridden area and a place for illegal littering. However, this park has completely changed as our Church of God participated in the “Decorating the Flower Garden of Our Town” policy conducted by the resident committee since last year. The dense scrub that surrounded the park was removed; the old stains on big slides, outdoor pull-up bars, swings, and other equipments…
The Seogu Church in Gwangju, South Korea
With Burning Fervor despite Rain and Wind
We keep hearing news about voluntary services actively carried out throughout the world in obedience to the teachings of Heavenly Father and Mother. To participate in them, the members of the Kaohsiung Church in Taiwan conducted a cleanup around Kaohsiung train station. The station located in the center of Kaohsiung was built in the 1940s and is still there now when the once-fishing village Kaohsiung has grown to be a big city with a population of 2.8million. We started the cleanup, hoping that Kaohsiung station will be the first step to a beautiful journey for citizens with a cleaner environment. Many family members and friends of the Zion members participated in the cleanup. From a little 7-year-old child to a…
The Kaohsiung Church in Taiwan