Volunteering

Faith Formation Class: Service Projects

By: Ifeanyi Francis Okoye

I, thank god, that I was able to have this amazing spiritual adventure I had with my faith formation class, learning these phenomenon and embracing the newly-found information was all of the parts that upheld my interest in the faith formation classes. Although these things and more mattered to me, something greater stood out, something that I never knew I would have embraced the idea of, the service projects. My old self would have quickly turned down the idea, of going to a homeless shelter, or swirling cotton candy at a “church” carnival, but once I saw how much happiness it brought, I became glad, knowing that I had a small impact in that person’s life.

The first service project that will maintain its place in my mind for a long time is the great foundation known as The Star of Hope. The Star of Hope is a volunteer organization focused on helping homeless people by providing food and shelter to them, while at the same time help the victims search for homes.

As our bus approached the location my first thoughts were not pleasant, from the environment outside and inside, I was frightened of what lurked ahead, and it seemed that my classmates shared my worries as well. All my fear soon went away as we walked through the doors of the facilitation, many religious quotations greeted me as well as crosses upon which Jesus was crucified on. We had endured into the residents of the shelter’s breakfast time. As we walked through to the room where we would gather, we were met by distant glares, and a few smiles here and there. From that moment on I could tell this experience would be a safe, maybe even life-changing one for me. When we split into groups I had a simple task to clear a room full of old dusty boxes, talk about allergies. After I had completed the task, a more heart wrenching but lively chore, we sorted books out for the youth of the facilitation and also handed them out. I’ve seen many happy faces before but nothing warms my heart more than when a child is happy, and knowing that you’re the cause of their bubbly attitude only makes your efforts more worth it.

The overall experience was amazing it was a change from my daily routine, a change that I did not complain about. Meeting all those people, intruding peacefully into the hearts of the homeless, all built up to the yearning of coming once again.

The other service project I had, was more of a family filled fun trail. After months of preparation for this annual church carnival, I was excited, never had I been to one of these events so I was eager to see what awaited me. A couple of students and I were in charge of the cotton candy machine. I looked at that old rust bucket and thought, “This is going to be a long day” but soon learned that working the machine was easier than it looked. After a couple of failed attempts I finally got the hang of things and was ready to serve my first unsuspecting “customer”. All through out the whole event our station was packed with delighted customers, longing to get their own taste of what we were brewing.