At the end of 2020, our leadership team got together and reflected on what values we see being lived out through Love Your Neighbor.
A common value we see lived out is collaboration. Working together, we value every contribution.
We thought about the many volunteers who come from over seventy different churches in the area to work together!
- Volunteers who use their own truck to pick up donations from homes multiple days a week.
- Volunteers who use their artistic ability to create art we can sell.
- Volunteers who use their engineering skills to repair appliances.
- Volunteers who used their technology backgrounds to build us a computer check-in system.
- Volunteers who use their finance background to help people struggling with credit card companies.
- Volunteers who use their clinical background to offer counseling.
We thought about the 30+ church leaders who became close church partners in 2020!
- Church leaders who continue participating in outreach training to elevate the dignity of those we serve, and shift the paradigm of service for their church community.
- Church leaders who provide funds to help community members through Love, when funds may be becoming fewer and less consistent.
- Church leaders who ask for help because they see that collaboration with an organization like Love INC can help them reach more people in more life-changing ways.
We thought about the ways we have shifted our Life Skills Program to be centered on dignity and collaboration with community members who came to us under-resourced in some way and end up participating in their own transformation!
- Participants who work with volunteer mentors to find creative ways to free up funds to meet their financial goals.
- Participants who discover ways they can contribute to the program and end up facilitating a class on a topic they are passionate about.
- Participants who graduate and enter mentor training on the same night, so they can pour into someone else.
We thought about the businesses who support us in all the ways!
- Business partners who stuck with us through event sponsorships even when those events turned virtual.
- Business partners who match or double match funds to provide food to our local church food pantries in huge ways.
- Business partners who offer their expertise and knowledge to help our organization mature.
We thought about the donors who keep giving!
- Item Donors who held onto their high quality items while we were shut down to save them for us.
- Item Donors who flexed with us when drop off times were drastically reduced.
- New financial donors who trust our organization to steward their contribution well.
- Financial Donors who continue giving faithfully even in this unprecedented time.
We thought about the customers who keep shopping!
- Customers who continue shopping as we follow recommendations for mask wearing and social distancing.
- Customers who borrow medical equipment from our stores.
- Customers who connect with our staff and shop each week to support the ministry.
We thought about the 50+ partner organizations who help us steward our donations well.
- The partner organizations who connect our donations to the people and agencies that need them most when we have what we need here.
- Partner organizations who provide warm items to the homeless, fidget blankets to those with Alzheimer’s, lap robes for cancer patients and much more.
This same theme of collaboration is modeled for us in 1 Corinthians 12 when we think about spiritual gifts.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
How humbling it is to see God’s collaborative work lived out in so many diverse ways here at Love Your Neighbor and in the community through Love’s partners.
We pray that we will continue to live out this value of collaboration, where working together, we value every contribution, finding creative ways to love, serve and connect our community in dignified ways.
There are many ways for you to volunteer with Love & we hope you’ll join us: volunteer@lovewm.org
We’ll be sharing 40 stories of transformation leading up to our 40th Celebration Block Party on September 24th. Please join us!