An 80-year-old widow speaks plainly when I asked her why she has allowed groups of young people to do work projects around her house for the past ten years.
“Cause I remember when I was a child and I learned to work. I had children and had to teach them about work. Nowadays, some people ain’t got time for that kind of teaching. This is fast living. Fast living ain’t nothing,” exclaimed Mrs. Mae.
Admittedly, Mrs. Mae sees her responsibility in the later stage of life as one that should provide youth an opportunity to learn how to work. In our present day, Mrs. Mae recognizes that work and service to others is a value that may not be communicated or modeled to the younger generation. It’s not necessarily that parents don’t want to teach their children to look out for the interests of others, especially those frail with age, but that they don’t always have the opportunity to serve the elderly. Mrs. Mae made a decision to be a person who gives young people a chance to serve. In her day, hard work was inherent to the culture. She grew up on a farm where the family worked together and it was expected that grandparents, older relatives, and elderly neighbors would receive the service benefit that the young people could provide. She views the cultural shift away from the ‘old fashioned way’ as a significant loss for today’s generation.
When youth visit the elderly, they hear stories of hard work and a lifetime of service. Elderly often reminisce of the days when they could do their work themselves and when they had the strength to help others. Sometimes those stories conclude with a look of sadness or loss. Other times, the elderly recognize the passage of time as an opportunity to give the next generation the gift it is to serve those in need.
As we talked, Mrs. Mae recounted some of the work that has been done around her house by the “young people that come every summer.” “They helped with my landscaping, cleaned out my shed in the backyard and put everything back all organized, painted my railings, built a landing off my back door…” As they worked, she did what she could. “One time I fixed spaghetti, pinto beans, cornbread and a sheet cake with chocolate sauce, homemade!”
The “young people that come every summer” that Mrs. Mae references are students from around the country that do a weeklong mission trip with our organization through a program called SLAM. Each day the students prepare to serve God by serving widows, elderly, children, refugees and immigrants. The youth come ready to learn God’s word and enact it. As Paul instructs the church at Philippi, that which they have learned and received and heard and seen, they should now practice those things (Phil 4:9). Without the cooperation of people like Mrs. Mae and others, the opportunity to care for the widow would be absent. Mrs. Mae considers the needs of others by opening her heart and home to a group of youth who she knows little about. What she does know is that in order for people to give, someone has to be willing to receive. For ten years, Mrs. Mae has humbly received from young pparticipants as her service to God and others.
Summer service projects are wonderful and go a long way to help widows and elderly. There are, of course, needs that occur outside of the summer months. Mrs. Mae is an elderly widow who lives alone. Although she enjoys working around the house--cleaning, laundry and cooking--there are projects that she is unable to do without help. At any time, she can and does contact us and students from the Institute of G.O.D. attend to those needs on a regular basis. Each week, students serve the widows and elderly in our neighborhood and surrounding area by cooking meals, cleaning homes, doing yard work, running errands, visiting and more. They are practicing the very thing that Mrs. Mae wants to teach--how the young and old relate to one another. In this relationship, the givers and receivers work together for the good of one another.
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