Gratitude

is a tricky thing. A letter to the editor from one of our out-of-state volunteers expressed her initial consternation that not all of the residents she had met on the Gulf Coast had made an effort to let her know they appreciated the hard work she and her group had been doing to help rebuild their community.
But by the end of her stay, she had realized that it's pretty difficult to bend over backwards day after day for 19 months to show how grateful you are; and to strangers, no less, who have come to help you because you can't help yourself. Emotional and physical fatigue, an optimistic or pessimistic outlook, pride, frustration, the attempt to preserve a modicum of dignity, the colossal amount of patience and fortitude it takes to negotiate the abyss of recovery red tape here--all figure into a given person's response on a given day, and unfortunately the author of the letter had hit some folks on their off day. But her observation points back to a mantra we like to repeat to our volunteers: It's not about you. No matter how long or how hard or how irritating your work day is, or how little you feel acknowledged by those you are serving, you have still come to serve, to put others before yourself.

(Actually, it really is about the volunteers in the sense that their time here is often a transformative experience--it changes their perspective, reveals their privilege, humbles them, and ignites (or rekindles) their zest for service.
Our aim here is two-fold: to improve the lives and lift the spirits of "the least of these," those hit hard by systemic poverty and by the inegalitarian effects of a catastrophic storm; and to provide an opportunity for members and friends of our denominational community, who are usually more privileged than those they serve, to come down and work side-by-side with their brothers and sisters as they attempt to recover and rebuild. It's definitely a two-way street; but as much as our volunteers give to the homeowners they work with, I hear over and over again how much more the volunteers receive from their hosts. It's a tremendous thing to see someone wake up each morning to a situation you would never want to experience and to witness them face it with grace, dignity, and optimism--and, most times, to be profusely thanked for the one week you are giving up to help move them past that situation.)