By Liz James A single flame flickers at the front of the room. Dancing across the faces of five volunteers, the light illuminates their differences in age, experience, and expression. Five unique countenances telling five unique stories. These five paths have somehow converged in the glow of a single light in Appalachia. These five individuals are being inducted into a long line of volunteers who have come before. This commencement ceremony for new volunteers highlights how service comes from a selfless place of building up our participants, and embracing the unity formed with fellow volunteers. From its earliest days in the late 1960’s Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) has been built by the hands of those who have been willing to share their own particular talents, skills, and passions. There are many roads that can lead to volunteerism. A volunteer is a young person fresh out of college--wide-eyed and eager to change the world around her. A volunteer is a middle-aged mother who wants to ensure a better world for her children. A volunteer is a grandfather, seeking to leave behind a legacy of service. Some volunteers have the physical strength and skills to install new windows and repair roofs. Some volunteers possess the spirit of hospitality and compassion to sit with a lonely widow, a child, or anyone in need of a friend. Some volunteers possess the energy, desire, and patience to mentor young people at summer camp. Everyone has something to offer when it comes to improving the lives of those living in poverty. For a volunteer, making the pilgrimage to Appalachia to serve is the first (and often most difficult) step. This selfless act is always the starting point of any form of volunteerism. Volunteers at CAP have already made a decision to sacrifice their time to come and join the mission to ease suffering in Appalachia. This sacrifice alone is a selfless act. In spite of many preconceptions, upon arrival at CAP volunteers quickly learn that they know very little about the people they will serve. In many ways, Appalachia is a culture foreign to most volunteers, especially when one considers the realities of rural poverty. Volunteers realize quickly that listening is more important than any desire to be heard. The more volunteers listen, the more comfortable Appalachians are to disclosing parts of their lives seldom shared, such as fears, hopes, problems, and aspirations. The relationship between CAP volunteers and the people of Appalachia is a partnership, with the power to transform. “The people of this region have been told throughout their lives that they are in need of our pity. This is not what is desired or needed in Appalachia. The people we serve want to contribute to the work we do and to give back in some small way,” shares Amy Schill, a full-time employee and former volunteer with CAP. The self-help component is central to CAP’s mission and as volunteers learn to serve they also learn to be served. In addition to repairing substandard housing, providing food, and distributing essential items like winter coats, these volunteers are also charged to empower the people of Appalachia. Volunteers seek to create relationships of mutual respect, because the restoration and renewal of this region requires the partnership of the people being served. Empowerment is the key to transformation. The eyes of the volunteers are aglow with excitement as Harold Underwood, Director of Volunteers and Christian Partners, reflects, “You are all so different, but the one common thing that brings you together is Christ. Though we may all come from different streams of faith, we are bound together in Christ’s love as we serve.” Each volunteer sets out on the same mission: to make lasting change for those being served. Every member of a volunteer team is needed and vital to the mission, because each person represents a part of the body of Christ. This idea serves as a reminder to volunteers that so much can be accomplished when working together for the same cause. The glow at the front of the room has grown as each of the five volunteers gather and their own candles are lit from the single flame. With each volunteer lighting the candle of the person next to them, there is a passing of light to one another just as they will soon do for the people of Appalachia. Each of them now possess their own light and courage to move into the mountains and valleys of Appalachia and shine a brighter future and strength for those living in poverty. This journey all starts from a single flame.
Submitted by clester2014
on Wed, 02/11/2015
