Jon has been a volunteer with Love’s Life Skills Program for more than 20 years. 20 years! The Life Skills Program can only function with dedicated volunteers who are willing to help with childcare, meals, classes and peer supports (walking alongside others one-on-one).
Jon, how did you originally connect with Love and start volunteering?
I’m not originally from this area, so I wasn’t familiar with Love. My wife and I started attending our church in Hudsonville and saw an advertisement in the church bulletin for the Life Skills Program. I signed up for the training night.
When I started, I attended a 1 hour training session before my first meeting with a participant. The staff member who led our training session shared something I’ve never forgotten. He said it’s important to pray with participants each week during your meeting. Some participants aren’t involved in a church or have never had someone pray for them, and it can be an emotional experience for them. I’ve remembered that and pray with each family. I’ve been blessed to have friends and relatives praying for me my whole life, probably more than I realize. I think it’s important to pass on that blessing to others who perhaps haven’t had that prayer support in their life.
What surprised you about volunteering?
I’ve really grown in my faith and as a person through my volunteering experience. When I look back over the last 20 plus years that I have been involved in Life Skills, I can see how God gave me skills and experiences in other parts of my life (work, hobbies, church, etc) and I was able to use them in my meetings with Life Skills participants. For example, I took some training in presentation skills for work several years ago and I think that helped me be a better teacher. I took some night school business classes and that helped me when I was meeting with participants who owned their own business.
What makes you keep doing it?
It’s been a blessing to walk along with families and individuals as they work through issues in their finances or other areas. I see how much stress there is when someone starts – sometimes it’s even hard for spouses to have a conversation without an argument. But I get to witness overtime how they progress and begin working together. Even just interacting with them for one hour a week, I feel that God has been using me in that hour to help many families over the years. I also learn from the participants I peer support or teach. They share their life lessons and experiences with me. This happens a lot while teaching.
Do you have a certain story that sticks with you through the years?
I was meeting with a family several years ago. They had a lot of financial stress and fairly significant debts. It was a struggle to pay the bills each week. In our weekly prayer together, we started asking God for financial blessings that would come from unexpected sources, so we could see a specific miracle or blessing that He had given to them in answer to these prayers. Each week for several weeks I would open our meeting with “Tell me about an unexpected blessing or financial miracle you received this week.” And for several weeks, they had great answers and we saw how God was answering our prayers each week in ways we never expected or imagined. It was truly a blessing for me to be a part of that process!
What would you tell others about volunteering?
Sometimes being a volunteer peer support isn’t easy and conversations can be uncomfortable. It’s important to remember that God is working in people’s lives through this program. Your main role is to be a prayer partner and encourager. It’s a privilege to recognize new blessings and celebrate successes with each family working to achieve their goals.
How has volunteering transformed you?
I’ve learned to pray with more faith that God can solve any problem we have by providing grace, wisdom, money, other people, more time, etc. There is no problem too big or small that we should not be lifting to Him in prayer.There are many ways for you to volunteer with Love & we hope you’ll join us: [email protected]
We’ll be sharing 40 stories of transformation leading up to our 40th Celebration Block Party on September 24th. Please join us!