The Words of the Rawlence Family
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The Words of the Rawlence Family |
We want to get to a place where people who join in with our vision out of their own good will get recognized, experience support and are a human resource that we invest into. So, last Friday we had a volunteers evening in 43LG.
It was a chance to pool together ideas about developing our movement and say a big thank you to all the people who volunteer at headquarters church by cooking a Big Mexican Buffet. The evening began with a talk on the purpose behind building a volunteering culture, our pastor Simon Cooper explained how we should look beyond our own movement and serve the communities which we live in. This was followed up by a presentation by Michael Rawlence about clarifying the role volunteers have on Sundays and how we want to organize the day to raise the standard of service.
We introduced the 'Volunteer of the Month' award (which included a £20 reward and a thank you card) and handed out one for one of elders (Sobayo Sobambi) and one for our under 40 category (Kunimasa Hayashi). This was the highlight of the evening for many, it was finally a chance for everyone to truly acknowledge the great work and attitude of our most hard working volunteers, those who go beyond the call of duty, and show excellence in their work. Many felt this is one aspect which we really need to emphasize more, our people are definitely our greatest asset and giving proper recognition is an important way of showing we care.
The discussions were quite enthusiastic and gave way to some good suggestions:
Turning Lancaster Gate into a fully fledged community center with activities going on 7 days a week
Arranging more socials such as movie nights, sports and picnics.
Organizing monthly service projects after HARP service.
Witnessing on a Wednesday to bring people to William Haines' great lectures.
Hopefully these ideas can start taking shape in the near future and of course with the help of more volunteers.
As promised, the buffet was delivered! Throughout the evening, dish after dish of piping hot Mexican food was being brought in by our dedicated team of cooks: Sung-Jong, Marian, Abigail and Theo. There were copious amounts of cheesy nachos, fajitas, quesadillas, Mexican salad and to top it off a desert of cinnamon covered churros!
It was certainly a night to be remembered, and next time we hope to see more people attending. So if you're feeling inspired why not apply to volunteer right now? www.unificationmovement.org.uk/uvolunteer