I don’t always get to do volunteer work or service projects. Or, I should say I don’t always get to participate in them directly. It does seem like I help Rob and Rylee a lot by enabling them to do the things that they do for others. It’s sort of a behind the scenes contribution I often make. I love that I can help them do these things, but I often wish I had a more direct role.
In preparation for our week of service together, Rob had some contact with Global Samaritan and our good friend Danny Sims the Executive Director and said that they were working on some projects for us to do. When it looked like I was going to be helping Rob do some filming, I think I was almost a little disappointed. I didn’t want to just be a tag-along.
On day one, I made it clear that if there was something else that needed to be done, they should not hesitate to ask. I knew Rob could handle filming on his own. But what I did not know was what and who we were going to be filming. Among the people we interviewed last week were volunteers, donors, a former air base commander, the general manager of several local TV Stations, a city councilwoman, and 20 or so representatives from various local non-profit service organizations.
If you had asked me before to list as many of these organizations as I could, the list would’ve been pretty short. But after hearing all of these people describe their missions, and describe their relationships to each other, to Global Samaritan, and to the Abilene community, I started becoming aware of so many things I had never seen.
Abilene is a tremendously generous place. There are so many unmet needs here, and it seems like any time someone becomes aware or uncovers one of these, brave and generous souls in our community always find a way to step in to offer assistance in whatever way they can.
So our mission project for this week was to raise awareness. We are creating short videos for Global Samaritan Resources that not only lift up the organizations they help, but also educate potential donors, volunteers, and those who could benefit from these services. I feel so overwhelmed by how many people in Abilene and all over are led to serve with tremendous giving hearts.
More stories and videos to come.