So what is a volunteer? Well, Webster defines it as “a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service.”
I personally think this definition doesn’t tell the story to good about our volunteers at TrueNorth Church. There is so much more to this definition of a volunteer. Let me share with you what it takes each Sunday morning to get Journey Land (preschool ministry) up and running; then making our area look like it did before we showed up, actually make it look better.
Each Sunday morning our volunteer’s show up at 6:00am. That’s right, 6:00am. While you and I are getting our beauty sleep our AWESOME volunteer’s are putting the final touches on the Cafeteria to make it a safe and fun place for our children to attend.
Now, if you have never been to the cafeteria I welcome you to come and take a look. There are colorful walls to make our area appealing to the children as they walk in. We have a large screen in our production area, tables, chairs, puppet area, check in and out area, strollers, porta-cribs, containers with supplies, high chairs, walkers, rugs, and the list goes on. My point is this, someone has to put all this stuff up and that’s where our set up team comes in.
You see, we don’t really get to see them that much. As I mentioned before, we are usually sleeping nice and comfy in our beds when they are at the high school setting up the cafeteria. Much of what they do isn’t mentioned to most, we kind of take it for granted that our childrens areas will be set up and ready to go when it’s time for service to start. I don’t think anyone intentionally thinks this, we just go on with our everyday lives and it just sort of happens.
So that’s the set-up team. But it doesn’t stop there. Now we have those who come to each of our services to care for all those children that attend Journey Land. On average we run anywhere from 100 to 110 children on a given Sunday. Now that’s awesome…reaching that many children for Jesus. But again, it takes volunteers to make this all happen. So we have volunteers who care for the children. What does that look like, well…some volunteers show up at 7:30am to help with the final touches of Journey Land before any child walks through the doors. Then they stay, teach a class, sing songs, puppet skits, run computers, change diapers, security, and of course, the list goes on. Not all volunteers are in the classroom. That’s what’s so great about Journey Land.
Remember, we have three services. So take the above and multiply that by 3. It takes approximately 42 volunteer per peek to make Journey Land classrooms work. That’s with 2 volunteers in each classroom; that’s not including any production people, security people or check in and out volunteers. We could add an additional 20 volunteers per week possibly more. That would give us a total of approximately 62 volunteer’s each Sunday morning. Let’s not forget the set up and tear down crew not in that figure.
Ok, so now we are to the tear-down crew…its summer, it’s hot…or its winter and it’s cold. We are portable so the elements are part of what we encounter. This crew comes in after everyone else has left and put’s all the items we use each week back on the truck. One by one the pieces are taken down, removed from the cafeteria and gently (most of the time) put away. Everyone else is at lunch visiting with friends and family and our precious volunteers are transforming our area back into the cafeteria of the high school A lot of sweat is put into making this happen.
Now what I have mentioned above is what happens on a “normal day.” It’s a lot, so much heart and love is put into all of this, so much time and sweat is given. Our volunteers love what they do, they care, they want Journey Land to be the best place a parent can bring their children and know they will be safe.
Let’s look at it when something is thrown at us at the last minute. Of course we can’t predict that our Air-conditioning unit in the cafeteria is going to go crazy. So now we through in the unpredictable move from the cafeteria to the lobby of the gymnasium after the cafeteria has been set up for the Sunday services.
WOW! What can I say; to most this would be a great time to vent our unhappiness about things. But NO! Not our volunteers at TrueNorth Church.
I was so encouraged by their willingness to jump in and get the job done. This meant taking most of the items (maybe half) to the lobby of the gymnasium and setting up Journey Land. It also meant that Kidzstuff and Journey Land had to share this area. Everything as we know it had to be changed, our scheduling, our production, our areas, I mean everything. And again, not even a whisper of a complaint.
Now let’s go back to tear-down. As you may remember I mentioned we had set up in the cafeteria, moved half the stuff to the lobby. So what does this mean? We had to tear-down in two different locations, the cafeteria and the lobby. Now try doing that in 90 degree weather without air-conditioning. Again, not one complaint. Our volunteers were encouraging me, I’m the leader right?
As I close with my story from above, I say this. I can’t think of any other place I would rather be than with my volunteer’s at TrueNorth Church. I am inspired by their giving hearts. The willingness to do anything that needs to be done, and more importantly their Love for Jesus Christ which shines through them as they serve.
I want each of you to know, I love you very much, what you do is so important and does not go without notice. I am sure when the time comes, Jesus will say to each of you “Job well done my good and faithful servant.”
May God Bless you!
With my heartfelt thanks,
Nina Brophy-Fiedler
Director-Journey Land
