This past Saturday morning, dozens of St. Philippians met bright and early at Hope to Home, one of our Home Missions ministry partners, for a Saturday Serve workday. I knew a little about Hope to Home but had never seen the facility nor volunteered in any role. I quickly learned there is a lot that goes into making Hope to Home function, and all of it is performed by volunteers.

So who volunteered? Young and old, couples and individuals, and parents with their children, as well as six college kids––three from Charleston Southern and three from The Citadel. Everyone was divided into teams and assigned different roles. These teams organized donated furniture within the warehouse, assembled seventeen kitchen kits, and refinished and painted furniture. In fact, St. Philip’s own Maxwell Steinhardt brought five coffee tables, which he had handmade, to be painted that morning, with a message of praise attached to the bottom of each one.

I was assigned to the delivery team and helped load a box truck with the furniture and furnishing needs of four different families. These individuals and families have been through quite a lot. To qualify for Hope to Home assistance, one must have been displaced or homeless within the past 60 days. The individuals and families we helped Saturday had recently secured housing but did not have the means to properly furnish them. Hope to Home provides beds, sofas, tables, pots and pans, bed sheets, linens, and so much more, and helps truly transform these houses into homes. Beds are made, kitchens and bathrooms are set up and organized, and furniture is moved in and placed. In addition to all of these things, these families also receive the love of Christ through the many volunteers who come to their homes to serve them. Through personal conversations and fellowship, these families are shown dignity and respect and filled with love––things that could be hard to come by during other periods of their lives. At the end of each delivery and set-up, the entire group presents the family with a Bible and prays with them for God’s peace and love and for their well-being in their new homes.

The purpose of the St. Philip’s Saturday Serve events are to bring Christ and His love to others in the community. However, the Hope to Home recipient individuals and families were not the only ones seeing the Spirit of Christ on Saturday. No, it was also on full display back at the warehouse, seen from all the other teams graciously completing all the behind-the-scenes tasks necessary to make the delivery events possible.  If you would like to help shine God’s light to others beginning to emerge from darker times, and maybe be blessed yourself, please consider serving. The next Saturday Serve event at Hope to Home will be in October.

To sign up to receive notifications and reminders of upcoming Saturday Serves directly from the Home Missions Team, please fill out this form.