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Bert and I had the privilege of leading a volunteer project with our church this past weekend.  It is called “What If Everyone?” day.  Can you imagine if everyone volunteered their time to those in need in the Charlotte area? Over 300 volunteers got together to do projects all around the city to give back and help out locally (www.whatifeveryone.com).  

Our specific project was at the FreeStore in Area 15 (off 15th Street) in downtown Charlotte.  It is an incredible ministry that literally has a store with clothes, shoes and home goods (which are donated) for homeless and low-income families to come and shop at for FREE!  They do a few free “yard sales” in the summer so we were there to help set up and run the sale. There was also a house next to the store that one of the Area 15 volunteers was renting that needed some ”fixing up” and since we had plenty of volunteers, some went to work inside of the house (Jack and I were just priming the walls getting it ready to be painted). 

What is so neat about this ministry to me is that they really aren’t focused on the “stuff” that they are giving away but more interested in building relationships with the people and helping them see Christ.  Several of the homeless people are now volunteers at the Freestore and one man there has actually started getting tutored and is now working on getting his GED.  It is changing lives.  Something about serving less fortunate people always brings me to a good place, one I need to get to much more often.  

As we pulled back into our driveway from our day, I looked at our home with a new appreciation.  I thought of the homeless lady that lived “in the woods” and immediately was reminded that most people in the world do not live like we do.  We also took Jack with us and I hope he learned that as well.  I want him to grow up knowing how much the Lord has blessed us and that there are less fortunate people in the world.

Wellesy stayed behind but he looked so cute in his wolfpack attire, we thought we’d throw his picture in too…

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