I spent my third week volunteering at Global Samaritan Resources. What a wonderful organization! They not only meet needs all over the world, but also serve people in the Abilene area. Last year I read an article in the newspaper written by the executive director at that time, Danny Sims. As soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to volunteer with them. The article was written right after the terrorist attack in Nice, France. It starts out addressing the helpless feeling we have when something like that happens – what can we possibly do? The article states there is something simple, yet significant: sending food and kindness to people displaced by war. While it won’t fix the conflict, showing love to refugee families can bring light into their dark world and change their future.
The first two days I sorted through donated bags full of stuffed animals. Coming from someone who still has her first teddy bear, I really loved this job. Some of the stuffed animals will stay in the Abilene area to be distributed by first responders when they encounter young children during a crisis. Others will be shipped to Iraq to be distributed to refugee children. All of the donated stuffed animals are examined for rips and holes, then sent to A-Town Cleaners where they are cleaned for no charge. Any toys that are too large, too small, contain words or logos, or are too scary are pulled out. Any toys that Global Samaritan cannot use are taken to the Christian Service Center. I packed two large boxes of stuffed animals to send to Iraq, and delivered 5 bags of toys to the Christian Service Center. When I entered the CSC, I heard my name – it was Sarah Bailey, who was doing her volunteer work there. How nice to see FDLIC employees volunteering all over town.
On day three, a semi arrived from San Angelo full of donations collected by a church in San Angelo. Global Samaritan’s job was to organize the pallets and prepare them for shipping to Amman, Jordan. Jason Gazaille was also volunteering that week and we both helped Esther and Sal prepare the pallets. Each pallet must be a certain size before it can be wrapped and weighed, and the boxes are all verified against the spreadsheet provided by the church. Esther told us that having two extra people helped them finish the shipment a week sooner than they expected. It made me feel so good that we were able to make a difference while we were there.
The following is the excerpt from Danny Sims’ article that really spoke to me. He said, “No one knows the number of lives and future decisions sending food will affect. But this is the answer to the question ‘What does sending food have to do with Nice, France and terror?’ Maybe not much today, but maybe everything tomorrow. We cannot, as Christians, do nothing. We should not, as Americans do nothing…So what can we do? One Army sergeant told us, ‘Keep sending food. Sending more compassion and kindness than we send bombs is our only hope.’ I asked him how many others in the US were sending food (to Northern Iraq)? He paused for a moment then said, ‘You guys in Abilene, Texas are the only ones.’ Abilene and Global Samaritan are sending kindness and hope. It is something we can actually do in response to terror.” The entire article is posted on the Global Samaritan website: https://globalsamaritan.org/terror-again-what-can-we-do/
If you ever think one person can’t make a difference, go volunteer somewhere and you’ll see that you can make a difference.
