Volunteering at the Mission
The Mission relies on a volunteer force of 80-100 people who generously give of their time to keep the medical clinic’s office running smoothly. Volunteers greet patients at the front window, help the check in for their appointments, retrieve their prescriptions, answer phones, make appointments, pull charts for the physicians and medical assistants, re-file the charts, help the patients check out after a physician has seen them, and do all of this and more with tremendous patience, care and awareness of the stressors that our patients face daily.
I spoke yesterday at a church about Christian identity and mission and my belief that the two cannot be separated. Our identity as those redeemed by Christ carries with it a mission that, when lived out in obedience, confirms our identity. The Mission’s volunteers prove my point. Certainly this ministry would not be what it is today, 25 years after its inception, if not for our volunteers.
Andrea, shown at left, is one such volunteer. She serves at the front window on Thursday mornings and has been doing so for about two years. She was invited to volunteer by the Mission’s volunteer coordinator, Viola Shields, who is a volunteer herself. The two attend First Central Presbyterian Church together.
“It weighed heavily on my heart for a long time,” Andrea said. “It was as if the Holy Spirit kept jabbing me, saying, ‘Go volunteer . . . It is your church . . . It is the Mission . . . You believe in it.’”
That belief has been reinforced, she says, by seeing how well the Mission’s patients are treated.
“And the Mission serves the people who volunteer, too, in a way that’s unexpected,” Andrea said. “I wish I’d begun volunteering earlier.”
Viola’s always looking for volunteers, so if you are interested, please let me know. 
