Title [Rodem Tree] Love must flow
Contents
“Where are you going today?” This is the greeting the church members give to the volunteers who change into work clothes after the Sunday worship service. Seoul Gwangyeom Church has a volunteer evangelism team. This is a voluntary evangelism group created with the purpose of evangelism through volunteering. After worship on the second week of every month, he mainly visits elderly people living alone and repairs their homes. Deacon Oh Se-hyeon, the leader of volunteer evangelism, is a doctor who runs a private hospital. “I am very much looking forward to serving,” he says.
What would be so much fun to do? The Volunteer Evangelism Team is currently made up of 18 people. But it's not something you go for blindly. The recruitment process is very detailed and specific. Targets are searched for through recommendations from social workers in the city office or welfare workers working in social welfare centers. After a target is selected, they go on a tour in advance to figure out what they really need and decide what to do.
Finally, when the dispatch order is issued, each member's role is divided. The women's team consists of 4-5 people, and they clean in the kitchen. Most of the time, the dishes are not cleaned properly and the dirt is stuck in them. The bathroom smells vibrating and the refrigerator is dirty, so it's scary to open the door. Pretty women also clean this place and make it a new kitchen.
The men's team does the painting, flooring, electricity and wiring work. But there are certain steps to doing these things. Beginners start by tearing off the wallpaper. After three or four months of probation, he is promoted to the wallpaper pasting and painting team. The rest of the steps are left to the experts. After cleaning up the messy and dirty things that are buried in the dust, put on new wallpaper and flooring and change the fluorescent lamp to make a new house. When the old people jump like children, the crew is rewarded. It leads to the confession, “I am happy as if the sins accumulated in my heart were washed away.” The joy of the volunteer corps is growing as the two families who received the help of the volunteer corps are now volunteering together.
What motivates a doctor to serve while drinking dust? He emphasized, “I created a volunteer evangelism corps out of gratitude for the many graces I have received from God. 'You can only feel the flow of love when it flows. You can see the true form of service leadership in his service philosophy that “If love is trapped, you cannot feel it.”
Yang Byung-moo (President, Human Development Institute)