- It’s never too late to learn new skills. They can enhance your
current career or give life to facilitating a new career. You may find a
new-found passion you never realized existed. Learning new things will
always give you confidence to face challenges in other areas of your
life as well.
- Finding new interests and learning new skills can be relaxing, fun,
and energizing. The energy and sense of fulfillment created by
volunteering will spill over into other areas of your life. Experiences
spent helping others can foster new perspectives on many aspects of your
life, including current work and personal situations.
Meet and spend time with a diverse range of people.
- Through volunteering you can meet an incredibly rich and diverse
range of people from all backgrounds and walks of life, particularly
at International Headquarters. You never know whom you will meet,
and what kind of impact this could have on your life. God works in
mysterious ways and often brings people into your life at different
times, for different reasons.
- Meeting new people is a wonderful way to develop your social and
professional network of friends. Spending time with people from
other cultures and backgrounds can be a great source of inspiration
and open your mind and spirit to new ways of living and looking at
life.
Improve your health.
- Medical scientists are beginning to discover there is
healing power in helping others. There is a new field called
psychoneuroimmunology, which researches the power of the mind to
influence health and healing. Harvard psychologist David
McClelland measured the antibody called IgA in students before
and after watching a film on Mother Teresa, a Nobel Prize
laureate. IgA is an antibody that helps the body defend itself
from infection. Amazingly, Dr. McClelland found that the
student’s immune response increased merely after watching the
film on Mother Teresa’s selfless service to humanity. Imagine
the potentially positive impact that helping others could have
on your immune system!
- Allan Luks, author of The Healing Power of Doing Good, says
there is medical and scientific documentation to support the
health benefits of volunteering. This includes a heightened
sense of well-being, an improvement in insomnia, a stronger
immune system, and speedier recovery from surgery.
- People who have strong social support networks have lower
premature death rates, less heart disease, and fewer health risk
factors. (Public Health Agency of Canada)
- Volunteering has a wonderful way of putting people in highly
social situations, which increases your opportunity for close
interpersonal relationships and strengthens your sense of
identity.
Develop a strong sense of achievement!
- There is choice involved in volunteering wherein you
have made a decision to help others. That is empowering and
rewarding personally.
- Volunteering is a way to return some of the benefits
that society has given to you back to society. It is often
thought, “I am only one person. How can I make a
difference?” Aren’t we glad Mother Teresa or Martin Luther
King didn’t think this way? You are only one person, but it
only takes ONE to start something, even if it is to make a
positive difference in your corner of the world. Feel
empowered to make a difference!
There are many ways that volunteering positively impacts
the universe. As with Mother Teresa or Princess Diana, the
reverberation of their work is global. You, too, can affect
the lives of many by the service you provide in your
hometown. You may not be as well known as these individuals
but that doesn’t mean you cannot have the impact. The
difference you make in one person’s life can have a “domino
effect” on the lives of many.
I hope you have gained some insight and feel motivated to
make a difference in even the smallest way for others in
your community. The mission statement of the Community of
Christ truly speaks to the essence of volunteering: “We
proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope,
love, and peace.” This personifies the heart of
volunteerism. Promoting communities of joy, hope, love, and
peace encompasses what we are all about.
President Steve Veazey sends out a wonderful message on
our Web site: (www.CofChrist.org/volunteers/
): “I would like to sound a call for a new wave of
volunteering in the church in support of all aspects of our
ministries, and particularly in response to the need for
volunteers at International Headquarters and at historic
sites.
This call is directed to those who have reached a point
in their lives where they are able to offer volunteer
service according to their interests, means, and gifts. Such
volunteering is an expression of lifelong response to
Christ’s call to provide servant ministry and do many good
things of one’s own free will” (see Doctrine and Covenants
58:6d).
Community of Christ welcomes volunteers at International
Headquarters, historic sites, and at the congregational
level. There are many ways to offer your ministry, and we
hope you will feel compelled to contact us. For volunteer
information for International Headquarters, contact Mica
Wiemann at
volunteer@CofChrist.org, phone 1-800-825-2806, or on the
Web at
www.CofChrist.org/volunteers/. For volunteer information
at historic sites, contact Lachlan Mackay at
lmackay@CofChrist.org,
or by phone at (217) 453-2246.
We encourage your service and applaud you for your
efforts with us and the many other valuable organizations
that benefit from your volunteering. Now, get out there and
make a difference—the sooner you do, the faster you will see
the overwhelming positive impact it has on your own life and
the lives of those around you!
—Mica Wiemann reporting
Herald News August 2008
