View archived Volunteer stories.
Volunteers
Relief from the Sun, in the Son
With a passion for people in need, a young volunteer came to New Orleans to help restore the homes and community. After hours of hard labor in the sun, he’d finally sat down on Louisa Street to eat a sandwich when he heard someone crying.
He looked down the street to find a woman, in her early 20s, sobbing.
“Ma’am, what’s wrong?” he asked her.
She insisted it was nothing, but he asked again.
“It’s the sun,” the woman said. “It’s so hot.”
He gently ushered her into the shade and asked her once more how he could help. The woman explained that she had just been fired, she was pregnant and didn’t know what to do.
He listened to her as she told him about everything that was going wrong. Then he asked if he could pray with her, and she told him yes. So they took each other’s hands and began to pray.
They thanked God for all of the blessings of the day, even though they did not seem prevalent at the moment. Then they asked God to fill her life with hope and peace that only God can provide.
By the time they finished praying, the woman had stopped crying. With that, she continued on her way.
This volunteer discovered what thousands of volunteers before him have also experienced—often the greatest impact we can make has nothing to do with swinging a hammer or hanging drywall - simply pausing, listening and sharing time can go a long way.
——————————
If you have a story you’d like to share, we’d love to hear it! Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).