The Helping Hands That Matter

By:  Wendy Tong, Findlay City Mission

​This past summer, during the Hancock County Fair, the fair offices graciously afforded us not one booth, but two booths to accept non-perishable food donations. For those of you who are not aware of how it works, I will explain. Each year, we are given tickets by the fair office to pass out to anyone who brings non-perishable goods to our City Mission booths. We give out a ticket for each item donated. With that ticket the donor then exchanges it for a ride ticket at the fair ticket booth. We have done this for the last 4 or 5 years. Each year, the amount of donations that we receive gets larger and larger. As we grow our services at the City Mission, we are feeding more and more people each year, so we are beyond thankful to receive such a wonderful blessing from those who give at the fair.
 
Having two booths means that we have to double the number of City Mission volunteers for this event. Last year, we were graciously approached by two different community outreach groups. One was the Findlay Service League and the other was Chive On NW Ohio. Both groups did quite an amazing job! They worked in two hour shifts the entire day. We even had one guy that volunteered and he came all the way from Dayton. But each one who came and volunteered was incredible.  
 
My point is that there are good people out there in this world who have a giving heart and want to serve and they don’t know how. They are not entirely sure of what we do here at the Mission and they don’t know how to get involved. Hopefully, I can clear up some of those things below.
 
The City Mission is an emergency shelter for the homeless in Hancock County and the surrounding area. We also provide lunch and dinner daily to residents and community guests. We have served almost 40,000 meals in 2017 and approximately 60,000 meals last year. We house men, women, & families. We have more than tripled in size since 2015 when we reopened the Mission after our building expansion. We have program managers who help connect our residents to necessary local resources. They work very hard in getting our residents back on their feet. We also volunteers serving in our kitchen and food distribution center each day to help the Mission run smoothly.
 
 It’s not an easy task. We are working hard at striving to keep people off the streets and when we think about it, it’s like the body of Christ with all its moving parts. The passage that comes to mind is:
12 There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. 13 We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. 14 So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.
15 Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. 16 And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? 18 God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. 19 If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? 20 As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.
21 The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. 23 The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honor. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. 24 The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And he has given more honor to the parts that didn’t have any. 25 In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part share in its joy.
27 You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.
The saying, “It takes a village to raise a family” – it sure does! The volunteers are the hands of the City Mission. Without volunteers we cannot function! Think about being the helping hand for the people who we strive to serve!
 
For more information on volunteering, please visit our website https://www.findlaymission.org/our-needs.htmland scroll down to see our volunteering needs. Contact our volunteer scheduler, Bob Barr (bobbarr@findlaymission.org), with any questions.

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