Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Where I've been

I've just had a whirlwind of a weekend and a crazy 3 months preparing for it. My assignment at church (a calling) has me working with the Public Affairs Council for my Stake (group of congregations in the area of Allen).

We celebrated 25 years since the first church building was dedicated in our city and with that came a commitment to the city to give 2500 hours of community service in one morning.

The weekend began with a silver celebration where a 30 minute video of the history of the church in our area had been compiled (again one of the projects I'd worked on with a committee for MONTHS) turned out fabulously--I was so honored to have played a role. It was beautiful!!

Then the next morning to the service: I was one of those helping to organize and mobilize 7 congregations worth of volunteers (our goal was 650 people) working on 11 different projects throughout the city. To say the least it's been a part time job coordinating and trying to communicate and organize all these projects to make the weekend a success.

The morning went off beautifully in spite of last minute stress that it would all fall apart. We had MORE than we needed at almost every work site and from our estimations we had nearly 850 volunteers working throughout the community and gave over 3000 hours of community service that day.

It was truly humbling to watch as the members of my church came and served, there was never a lack of willingness to work and work hard--each person giving of their own time and talents. I worked coordinating 2 indoor projects--one was making fleece blankets for cancer patients and the room was FILLED with the sounds of women chatting, sewing machines whirring and each person felt needed, worked with a purpose and truly touched my heart.

Thank you to the Allen Texas Stake for letting me be a part of this landmark event!!