Now accepting applications to serve

Recently I went to the Union Gospel Mission (UGM), to get plugged in and start serving. I was amazed at their ministry. A few years ago, when I was in the Master’s Commission, we went and served a number of times at the UGM. We served at a number of their ministries; doing physical labor at Tshimakain Creek Camp, cleaning rooms and serving at the men mission, and sorting Christmas gifts at Anna Ogden Hall the woman and children’s shelter. This gave me a small picture of their ministries, so when I moved got to EWU it seemed a good choice for volunteering my time. I called them up, and asked them how I could serve. They told me to come to a volunteer training session that next week (they have three or four a month). At the training there was seven or eight other adults, plus many of them brought their young teens. We went over the many different areas of ministry that the UGM has their hands in. It made sense that there were so many possible volunteers, if there wasn’t they wouldn’t run.

At this session, they give you an volunteer application. This consists of three pages of information about the mission, working with homeless men and women safety promotions, a double sided in-depth application (definitely longer then some of the applications I filled out for fast food restraints), and even a form to allow them to do a background check. What a process. After turning in my application, I was called a few days later to schedule a interview with the director of volunteers. With my busy schedule, we decided that day was the best to come in and do the interview. Meeting Ryan, the volunteer director, was a really good experience. It was one, getting to focus on each other’s experiences in Christ. The interview seemed more of a means of deciding where I was best placed into the UGM’s many ministries, then whether or not I was able to come and volunteer. I was dumbfounded at the process, something that I would have never expected.

Hopefully soon, I will be posting some interesting stories about my volunteer experiences at the mission. We are planning on me taking some hours weekly or bi-weekly to come in and hang out in the men’s mission day room. This is where the guests (non-programmatic) have an opportunity to hang out. I will hopefully just be able to hang out with the guys, maybe play chess, share my story, listen to their stories, and especially be able to share Christ. I will also be helping input data into the computer systems and doing what ever odd jobs the mission needs done.