{"id":1367,"date":"2012-06-07T18:34:13","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T22:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2012-06-06T20:17:29","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T00:17:29","slug":"thank-god-for-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html","title":{"rendered":"Thank God For Volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last summer my husband had a total hip replacement.\u00a0 Then in the fall, he had a knee replacement.\u00a0 As a result, our yard and flower beds were terribly neglected.\u00a0 It was all I could do to take out the garbage and pick the strawberries and green beans.\u00a0 By this spring the flower beds were really bad.\u00a0 Rich can now do some yard work, but there was so much to catch up on.<\/p>\n

Then a friend told me about a group of churches here in town that had a program to help out older or handicapped people with yard work and anything outside.\u00a0 They are called “Neighbors Helping Neighbors”.\u00a0 The group is made up or people of all ages who just want to help someone in need.\u00a0 Our team was from the Methodist and Lutheran churches.\u00a0 They came early in the morning and stayed until noon.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One young man washed the mold off the siding on our house. Two older ladies weeded the flower beds on their hands and knees.\u00a0 One gentleman weeded\u00a0 and mulched around my roses.\u00a0They brought their own tools, including a ladder so they could clean our out gutters.\u00a0They never even took a break.\u00a0 They never came in our house.\u00a0 They even brought their own water.\u00a0 What a blessing!!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bible clearly teaches us to help those in need, but how many people actually do it.\u00a0 It’s easy to give a few dollars to missions or bring some canned goods for the food pantry, but this was real work.\u00a0 These people gave of their time on the weekend and of their energy to help strangers.\u00a0 There is not much of this kind\u00a0of help available.\u00a0 Thank God for people willing to sacrifice to help others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last summer my husband had a total hip replacement.\u00a0 Then in the fall, he had a knee replacement.\u00a0 As a result, our yard and flower beds were terribly neglected.\u00a0 It was all I could do to take out the garbage and pick the strawberries and green beans.\u00a0 By this spring the flower beds were really…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,31,41,37],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","tag-compassion","tag-local-activities","tag-ministry","tag-touching-others-s"],"yoast_head":"\nThank God For Volunteers - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thank God For Volunteers - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last summer my husband had a total hip replacement.\u00a0 Then in the fall, he had a knee replacement.\u00a0 As a result, our yard and flower beds were terribly neglected.\u00a0 It was all I could do to take out the garbage and pick the strawberries and green beans.\u00a0 By this spring the flower beds were really…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-07T22:34:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-07T00:17:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_08031-289x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thank God For Volunteers - Small Town America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thank God For Volunteers - Small Town America","og_description":"Last summer my husband had a total hip replacement.\u00a0 Then in the fall, he had a knee replacement.\u00a0 As a result, our yard and flower beds were terribly neglected.\u00a0 It was all I could do to take out the garbage and pick the strawberries and green beans.\u00a0 By this spring the flower beds were really…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html","og_site_name":"Small Town America","article_published_time":"2012-06-07T22:34:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-06-07T00:17:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_08031-289x300.jpg"}],"author":"dhanny","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/06\/thank-god-for-volunteers.html","name":"Thank God For Volunteers - 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