In my hometown there is a ministry known as SON Ministries. SON means “serving our neighbors.” This ministry came and spoke to our church and shared with us the wonderful things they are doing to help families that are in poverty in our area. I have provided a link to their website because I believe they provide a wonderful service to our community.
After they spoke at our church I encouraged others to join me in serving. I have since had the opportunity to spend some time volunteering at their summer lunch program, and it was wonderful.
I am sharing here the testimony I provided in church to explain to people why it mattered so much to me to be involved.
I share it here because even if you are no where near my hometown I’m sure there is SOME service or opportunity that God is calling you to, whether that is through an organization, or a church, or visiting a neighbor.
There is someplace, somewhere, somehow that God has you in mind to serve someone else.
So I want to encourage you by giving you some of my reasons for being passionate about serving.
When I was in elementary school, my parents struggled to provide us with the basics: food, clothing, and water.
I envied the nice clothes other kids wore and felt ugly in my hand-me-downs. I cried when I skinned my knee and bled on my favorite shoes, because I knew Mom couldn’t replace them.
I remember catching rain water in kitchen pots and sharing shallow bath water with my brother. I had to keep my only jeans clean for a week at a time because the well was too dry to do laundry. Mom said there was water beneath the bedrock, but we couldn’t afford to drill down to it.
One day the fridge was empty when I asked for lunch, so Mom made an adventure out of making barley soup with beef bouillon, two carrots, and a handful of leftover ground beef. I often gave Mom my birthday money, so she could buy milk and peanut butter or pay the electric bill.
We lived on the generosity of an aunt, who provided us with free bulk foods: whole oats, dehydrated milk, barley, pinto beans, pancake mix. Without her kindness we would have truly gone hungry; months went by when we had nothing to eat except those dried foods and the free school lunches – which I tried to hide from the other kids, who were often cruel.
Some older boys bullied us for our poverty. Once they threw my brother against a fence and another time they threw orange-sized rocks into my stomach while I walked home from the bus stop.
With all that said, you might think I had a miserable childhood, but I didn’t. Outside of school I felt loved and secure.
“The world is cruel,” mom said, “but family is safe, and church is family.”
The people at church didn’t see us as charity cases. They loved us and I felt it. They had us over for Sunday dinners and game nights. We played with their children for hours while our moms visited. One Christmas mom and dad had nothing at all to give us – and they told us. And that year, our church family covered our front porch with anonymous gifts.
My parents reciprocated this love to others whenever they could, opening our home to a foster son and to a family in more need then we were.
Because the church loved me and because my parents loved others, I knew God’s love was real,
and I turned to him early in life, even cherishing a dream of serving in missions so I could help people in need and teach them about Jesus.
But I also remember Ricky. He was poor – and dirty.
The teacher didn’t like me and made me sit in the back row.
The teacher liked Ricky less and made him sit in the corner.
He kept his head down all day and was alone at recess. I never once saw the teacher or anyone else even speak to him.
All but one student shunned me, and that student and her whole family became Christians because of their relationship with my family.
But I shunned Ricky.
I averted my eyes, avoiding him, uncomfortable at the thought of even looking at him.
In third grade we did a “hands around the playground” event (the same day of the “hands across the country” event) and I was horrified that I was supposed to hold Ricky’s hand. When the day finally came and my only friend and I found ourselves standing on a red ant hill and swatting and stomping to shake off the ants, I was more relieved that I had an excuse not to touch Ricky than I was bothered by the ants, even while God pricked my conscience for my attitude.
Ever since I have wondered….
1) if I had ever spoken to Ricky could we have been friends?
2) If we had been friends could I have introduced him to Jesus?
3) Did anyone ever show him the love that made me safe all my life ?
And then I think – I was just a child, and children follow.
If my teacher had been kind to him, would I have been brave enough to be kind?
Where were the grown-ups that should have been loving him and teaching other children to love him?
SON Ministries exists for the Rickys – to show the children in poverty (and their parents) that same love which softened my heart toward God. SON Ministries provides for physical needs, but their driving purpose is to give children the safety of loving relationships.
The poor in Hilliard don’t look like Ricky or I did 30-some years ago. Wash water and nice clothes are plentiful and cheap now. But they struggle to put food on the table and keep the utilities on. And they still experience rejection from a cruel world. Those of different languages and religions are even more isolated, because we avoid them and avert our eyes, just like I did with Ricky. And by so doing we are pushing them further from God.
SON is helping fix this, giving volunteers the opportunities to build authentic connections with people from different communities while meeting people’s immediate needs.
They have a wide variety of service opportunities, from legal aid and employment assistance, to teaching or childcare, to food service, and more. Even if you have no idea what to do or have limited time, if you want to be involved, you can be.
I am passionate about SON Ministries because of the relational mission. This isn’t a hand-out service, providing charity as if the poverty is just a problem to be solved. It is about building authentic, loving relationships and being a place where children can feel safe.
And we hope that through our actions, those who don’t know God will be drawn to Him when they see his love being actively lived through us.
In closing, I have two Scripture passages:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
Isaiah 58:6-8
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14-16