Community Service Reflection

For my service hours I went to a Star of Hope Missionary, the Souper Bowl of Caring at HEB, and the Houston food bank in order to complete my community service hours. At the beginning, I was simply just helping the needy, because it was required by my school, but as I continued to volunteer at these places, it began to be something that I enjoyed doing. I became aware of the people that I was helping and how much they appreciated what I was doing for not just them, but other people just like them. Another part of my community service that I enjoyed was the fact that at some of the places, I given the opportunity to volunteer with my peers. This showed me that everyone is called to help those who cannot receive the aid he or she needs. My experience of volunteering with my friends also strengthened our respect for each other; we acknowledged the fact that each one of us was willing to give up some of our free time in order to serve the community. As for my spiritual growth, I believe that my relationship with God grew as I accepted the acts of kindness that He called me to do. But, I also have to ask myself one important question: If I wasn’t required to do community service, would I still have done it? I believe the answer to that question is no, because if it wasn’t for my school I might not have put one foot in any of the facilities that I volunteered at. But as I continued to work at these places, I began to learn what it really means to be a “man for others”; it means that God calls us to be humble servants of the poor and we must answer this call by been as charitable with both our money and time.