Service Work in New Orleans

What about the service experience is different than the service we do on the team at home?

Here at home, we do a lot of service work that is more tailored to smaller groups. As in, we do work that will directly help people we may know. While we were in New Orleans, the service work that we did was for people absolutely none of us knew. The people in charge of the organizations we paired with probably also didn't know everyone they helped individually. The work they do is for a much broader group of people. Similarly, we worked with people and organizations we were not familiar with before. Here on the leadership team, it is made a point for us to all become familiar with each other and build bonds over a course of years. In New Orleans, we became familiar with our fellow servant leaders over the course of a day. The work we did in New Orleans was also for people with different needs than we usually have worked with here in Winfield. We started work reconstructing houses made unlivable by a natural disaster we wouldn't find anywhere near Kansas. I'm sure most of us on the leadership team have done at least minor reconstruction, but not for the same reasons we did it in New Orleans. On our second day of work, we helped get groceries to families in need. This is a common community service practice, but I had never done this one before. It was fascinating to see so many people work an individual part of the system we were all a part of.Read more