Back in August 2010, I felt a strong need to find some volunteer work. Even though I’m a busy full-time working mom with 2 small boys, I felt like God was telling me “you have more time to share!” So I started looking and heard about the icanhelptwincities.com website on KTIS and thought I would start there. This is where I found the opportunity with Great River Area Faith in Action. When I got the call from you, I was excited to meet and see what opportunities were available.

When I met with your volunteer coordinator, she asked many questions about my life and my experience. I was fully expecting to be matched up with an elderly person helping them clean their home, wash dishes, etc. This would have been fine with me and I was willing to do anything as long as I was filling a need somewhere. After talking more, you guys found out my love for animals, specifically horses, and how I had grown up on a farm. It was at that time, your volunteer coordinator thought of someone that I might just be a good match for.

She told me about Joann and Russ and how they needed help on their farm because of some health issues and challenges they were dealing with at the time. I was SO excited to meet them and their animals! I used to have horses growing up in my adolescent years and was absolutely thrilled with them! I loved riding them, brushing them, and just being around them. To tell you the honest truth, I missed the smell of the farm!

Within a couple of weeks, I ended up driving out to Joann’s home and meeting her for the first time. We “clicked” and ended up talking in the dark outside until we couldn’t see the pigs we were petting anymore! To try and make a long story short, I have gained a wonderful new lifelong friend in Joann! She has been such a mentor to me and I cannot tell you how much I’ve learned from her and how much I enjoy my time over there.

AND…to make a story even better….

From getting to be friends with Joann, I am now the proud owner of a very beautiful triple-registered show horse! It was originally purchased for something like $80,000 and it was GIVEN to me by someone that Joann knew. I now board my horse at Joann and Russ’ for a very low price with the expectation that I will come help them out at least 2 hours a week. What a blessing from God!! He has shown me that when you give…you always get back so much more! That said, I cannot log these hours as volunteer “work” anymore…it is now time spent with a friend and I cannot call that work at any level! 

I would be interested in seeing if there were any new opportunities for volunteering that may be a fit for me, but I cannot use this one anymore! Thanks first to God and then to Faith in Action for giving me this connection!

P.S. Feel free to share my story with anyone, I feel it inspiring not only to me, but to others I have shared it with

Amy A. Capes
Finance Support Specialist
Unitron

Clothes Distribution-Chiweshe Village, Zimbabwe

I would like to start by thanking everyone who donated clothes and prayed for me, on my first mission trip to Zimbabwe. I feel very much transformed and humbled by the experience. I left for Zimbabwe last October to fulfill the vision that the Lord had given me a few years ago. After arriving in Zimbabwe I hit the ground running. The Roman Catholic church in Gweru gave us a Priest to come and bless the clothes and the 170 rosaries that the archdiocese of St. Paul had donated. When I met the Priest, the first thing he said was “This has never happened in our parish before that someone would come and just donate 10 barrels of clothes and just give clothes away.” Soon Mass was underway and people kept coming until the benches and chairs we had rented were not enough that some people ended up sitting on the ground since it was an outside mass. After Mass we had a thanksgiving meal because I knew some people had walked miles and miles on hungry stomachs. I became anxious because we had enough food to feed about 50 people but close to a 100 people showed up. However, to the surprise of everyone, we managed to feed all the people that showed up. God manifested him self and once again showed me this was his project.
The next day we went to Mass and after Mass it was time to distribute 10 barrels of clothes at the Catholic church. Priority was given to orphans and widows that had lost families though HIV/Aids and other tragedies. Here again too many people who showed up and now I was anxious if the clothes were going to be enough. Each person that showed up got an item of clothing and others managed to get two items until all the barrels were empty.

In the middle of distribution the Priest came to me and said he had an afternoon mass where a new church was opening and wondered if I had additional barrels of clothes to take to a rural area called Wilbis. Without hesitation God guided me again and we went to this remote area 45 minutes away. We had mass in a classroom that was falling apart, sitting on the benches in this classroom in Wilbis was a balancing act because if you sat at an odd angle you could fall. But this congregation had so much joy and love in their hearts that shined beyond the poverty. Here we handed out Rosaries and clothes and everybody left with a handful of new clothes.

The next day we drove to Musana village about five hours from Gweru to do some clothes distribution in that village. God had made it so that all of his people would witness his Glory believers and non-believers alike. In Musana Village we had people that were Christians and Non-Christians come to receive clothes people came from different villages to witness the “Love of the Lord for them” The Love of the Lord surely endures forever. We spend an extra day in this village in fellowship about the greatness to the Lord.

The next day we woke up at 4am and had to take 4 barrels to Chiweshe Village, The Salvation Army Pastor had invited widows, widowers and orphans from other, congregations and villages. (In Zimbabwe the Salvation army is a church) so they had prepared a concert to glorify the Lord. We had church service and after the church service the clothing distribution started and again it was very peaceful and organized everybody got clothes. The rest of the clothes were distributed to Mutambara Village.

2 weeks went by so fast that I hardly realized it. It was a blessing to be blessed to bless others truly. When I was coming back I felt very transformed and God surrounded me with his people, I sat next to a Catholic Priest all the way from South Africa to Atlanta on that 16 hour flight I felt moved and it appeared God had spoken to this priest about me and what mission I had gone to do. He prayed with me and we fellow-shipped, while he talked about his mission trip in Zambia for 8 years. He was an angel that the Lord had placed on that flight to ease the anxieties, I was starting to have such as, “what is next Lord, when and where is there next mission?”

I went to this little church on a sat afternoon and got food prepared and cups and plates in this truck and we drove to the Dorthy day center. We dished up food on plates with apples and yogurt to go with…The people were very grateful. Its hard to go and do things like this because it reminds me of how selfish I am and how much worse I could have it..Seeing those people and their way of life just makes me want to be a better person and be more grateful and more giving.

I am 52 years old and have been instructed for a year.

I played for a half an hour in a small cafe in the house called The Bistro after auditioning with the recepionist.

Some people listened and others talked with geusts.

A baby cried.

When I was finished I asked if I could read from some magazines or the Bible to finish the hour out.

They asked me to play instead !

I practiced before them for the rest of the time.

Then one lady asked me to play my favorate song again.

The whole program was very inspiring.

My hand was very tired.

Thank the Lord I am invited back ad contacting another home !

 I was looking for a way I could help by making deliveries. I am a courier in the early hours and have the afternoons open and I found that I could help Reach and Restore by picking up items that are donated and then delivering items that people who are refered to Reach and restore, need. It is a joy to see an empty room become a useful room for a family in need.

Cheerful Givers & Kids 'n Kinship volunteers on Make A Difference Day

Cheerful Givers partnered with the Kids ‘n Kinship program on national Make A Difference Day, Sat. Oct. 23rd which allowed mentors and mentees an opportunity to give back to their community by assembling toy-filled birthday gift bags. As a result of their efforts, 1,870 less fortunate children will be able to receive a birthday gift on their special day.

Special guests at this event included Kathryn Knuttila, Miss Minnesota 2010 and Sergeant Billy Todd of the US Army.

Since Cheerful Givers began in 1994, more than 360,000 children have received birthday bags.