August Volunteer Activity

On Saturday, August 8, we will be volunteering at Carolina Boys Home. We will be cleaning out a shed starting at 9:00 AM and we should be finished around noon or 1:00 PM at the latest.

Carolina Boys Home is one of the few African-American owned charitable service organizations in South Carolina. They house up to 8 boys between the ages of 13 and 19 years of age and provide them with rehabilitative services on a group and individualized basis. Many of these boys are "at-risk" who are having behavioral disorders and/or acting-out behaviors. The mission of Carolina Boys Home is to help these boys to become responsible, self-sufficient adults.

The shed we will be cleaning is used for housing donated items and office files. Below are some photos to give you an idea of what we will doing on August 8th. Please contact me as soon as possible to volunteer for this event. (mpowerkm@hotmail.com)

Show Some Love

How many times in the past week have you heard the phrase, "Show some love"? It is very possible that you may hear it at your job, at home, during a local or national news tv program or even at church. We hear it, but do we do it?

In this simple post, my suggestion is you show some love by being willing to serve others. Genuine service of others means you put their interests above yours. Love is relatively easy when it comes to our lovers, spouses, family and friends. But as Christians, we are required to show love toward those outside of our social circles and even to our enemies.

Community service is one way we can show some love and I hope you will answer the call to love everyone. The Yes We Will Volunteers is one such opportunity for you to show some love.

July Volunteer Opportunity

The Yes We Will Volunteers will be volunteering at St. Peter's Catholic Church on Saturday, July 18 starting at 10:00 AM through 1:00 PM. St. Peter's is located on Assembly St. across the street from the main public library.

We will be helping to serve meals to homeless people. They already have people to cook and prepare the food, so we will essentially serve as "waiters and waitresses". I need about 10 people for this project.

Below are a few photos I took of this past Saturday's meals for the homeless at St. Peter's to give you an idea of what we will be doing.

If you wish to participate on July 18th, please contact me as soon as possible. mpowerkm@hotmail.com.

KEVIN

The Dangers of Being Good

We live in a world of polarization and it is of our own doing. It is not enough that we place labels on ourselves and each other, but we make things worse when we place values on those labels. For example, I may not only see myself as an African-American male, but I judge my label to be “good”. Furthermore, I may imply that those who do not fit my label are “bad”.

Once we place a value on the various labels we assign to ourselves and others, we sow the seeds for inhuman treatment, prejudices and other harmful thoughts and actions. It is not enough for some to disagree on the topic of abortions, but because the other side is “bad”, it is okay to bomb their offices or shoot the doctor. Unfortunately, if one views being a Jew or African-American as “bad”, then it is okay to injure or kill them. Another example is if a person who has been shot 41 times by a police officer is seen as “bad”; then the shooting is ruled as justified. Additionally, if the wife of the police officer or his fellow keepers of the law testify that he is a “good” cop; then again the criminal charges against him can be dropped.

So, in a nutshell, the danger of being good has to do with how we use our subjective notions of who is good and who is bad to shape our behavior, relationships and actions. Once we have self-righteously appointed ourselves as “good” and others as “bad”, that opens the door for racism, sexism, ageism, discrimination based on one’s weight, bombings, military invasions, marital infidelity and other destructive behavior.

It is my hope that eventually we will mature beyond our selfish tainted views of morality and free ourselves from the dangers of being good.

Will Hate Win Out?

According to the Southern Law Poverty Center, the number of hate groups has increased dramatically over the last few years. It seems ironic that as we celebrate the election of the first African-American president and other notable achievements by other African-Americans and other people of color, the stubborn resistance of hate groups to these positive changes is increasing. In light of the murder of the security guard that occurred yesterday in Washington, DC and the murder of the late-term abortion doctor recently, it can seem like things are getting worse.

These are sensational, but still tragic cases. What about in our own lives? How tolerant are we of people who do not look like us, think like us, vote like us or pray like us? Is there a person at work or at our church or at the gym that we cannot stand? We may feel our dislike of someone may be justified, but aren't we expected to strive for a higher standard of love? The kind of love that is applied to enemies as well as friends, is more willing to lead to forgiveness than punishment and inspires us to consistent occurrences of self-sacrifice for the betterment of others.

Yes, we need to rebuke those who kill and bring harm to others. But let's not leave our attention on only "them". We too must be accountable for the seemingly minor episodes of hate that we express towards the IRS, the bill collectors, our no-good for nothing ex-husband or wife, our mean boss, our greedy banker, our lying car mechanics and so on. It is those daily expressions of malice toward these and other people that puts into question whether or not hate will win in the end.

Gleammns Head Start Project

At the Gleammns Head Start site just off St. Andrews Road, we washed the exterior of 6 buses. Below are some photos with captions.

Sexy Woman!

There’s a T-Mobile cell phone commercial where they send out some accountants to people’s homes to explain how they can save money on their cell phone bills. In turn, each is rejected, shunned or ignored in their efforts to pass on some valuable information to their customers. The next image is of a sexy and sultry Catherine Zeta-Jones in a sleek red dress knocking on a door and asking the obviously star struck male if he has time to look over his cell phone bill with her. Not surprising to anyone watching this commercial, this man enthusiastically accepts the good-looking actresses’ offer.

Getting others to volunteer can be as challenging as it was for the accountants described above to gain an audience. Asking people to give up their time, particularly on a Saturday morning can be a hard sell. But Christians should be as receptive to doing good things in our neighborhoods as the man in the commercial was open to looking over a boring phone bill with Catherine Zeta-Jones. For us, instead of the allure of a sexy woman, the appeal of community service should be the positive impact we can have on the downtrodden people in our respective corners of the world.

Just in case the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from helping others is not enough, does anybody have Catherine Zeta-Jones’ number?

Ronald McDonald House

For this project, we cleaned out a shed at a Ronald McDonald House facility where they receive donations. Before we got started, we took a tour and learned about their mission. In essence, The Ronald McDonald House provides residential type housing for families of critically ill children. Below are some of the pictures from that project.

What We Do

Who are we and what do we do, you ask?

We are the Yes We Will Volunteers. Because of the name, many people will assume that we started as a reaction to President Obama's election. But that is not entirely true. The concept behind our group's mission was on my mind and in my heart for quite some time. President Obama's election made it a little easier for me to recruit other people. (I guess people would rather listen to him than to me when it comes to community service!!)

Here's a brief explanation of what we do: We strongly believe in community service and are committed to collectively engage in programs that benefit people other than ourselves. Each month, we go out and we do something on behalf of the less fortunate. Up to the present moment, we have initiated projects with social service agencies, but in the future, we may take on an increasing number of direct service projects.

Harvest Hope Volunteer Project

On Saturday, June 6, The Yes We Will Volunteers (with some help from our friends) helped to fold and then pack boxes of food destined for senior citizens. We had approximately 50 people participate and they were almost evenly split between adults and youngsters.

Although there was a lot of sweating and grunting, we still had fun and we were helping a great charity serve a vital need in the community.

Everyone who volunteered should be proud.

Thanks to the members of The Jericho Road Project, The Young Women of Excellence and the Men's Day Committee who joined forces with The Yes We Will Volunteers for the day.

These are photos from the Harvest Hope Project. Enjoy!