"When you are in the service of your fellow man, ye are only in the service of your God."

Wall Before

Wall after

I would like to start by asking, "Am I the only one that starts this process by hoping that I get so or so", because that person will be so much easier to find service for him or her?

This year has been very unique in that almost anything I was doing would most likely fit into the category of some kind of service for my person. The hard part was to focus on just one project that would exemplify my ONE person. What could I do that had some kind of message to the ONE, but something that all of us might learn a message out of and use in our lives?

 Please note: all 8 Elders wanted a turn running the buffer

One of the assignments my mission president gave me was to try to train the local members to take care of their building. I was to work with a department of the church called Temporal Affairs. In the church, each ward building is to be taken care of by the local members, cleaning it each week. Temporal Affairs were to hire a company to deep clean the building each quarter. This never got done to our Pointe Noire building. I found really quickly that even some who are in a leadership position, are not able to look at a project like this and see the work and detail that has to be done.

Look at that ground in DIRT!

After being in the mission for 17 months, I could see that the chapel had not been deep cleaned, since the missionaries did it as a service project when we were out just 1 month. Keep in mind that we are talking about Africa and not the USA. When it rains in the Congo we would get all kinds of muddy feet tracked all over the whole building, which was all tile, thank goodness. The members would mop regularly, but there was a dirty buildup that was never cleaned off properly.

With only 2 weeks left on our Mission and trying to get everything done, I still wanted to do a special project for my ONE. I decided to follow my promptings and the project of getting the Building deep cleaned, even if was me, alone, to do it. Then, at our last district meeting the Elders asked us to give them an idea for service. Wow, what a great opening. I gave them my idea of deep cleaning the building the last Thursday before our new couple was to arrive.

We washed walls and glass, cleaned all the fans and worked on the tile floors . Sounds easy right?? I had 4 Elders working on walls for 3 hrs. 2 Elders on fans 2 hrs. and 2 to 4 Elders with the big scrubbing machine on the floors 4 hrs. After we were finished, the entire building shined and looked much better!

Remember, that "when you are in the service of your fellow man, you are only in the service of your God." Chuck is a great example. I have seen and heard of Chuck, the ONE, help in moving many people in the Elder's quorum, and volunteering in many ways where work was needed to be done. Chuck is one of those people who can look at something, and see how to organize it, and get the job done.

 

Whether it is cleaning the house with his children, cleaning his yard, or organizing his entire office staff, he gets the job done. I have learned that it is a gift to be able to be a leader and organize people to work. I am proud of you Chuck, and that you have learned to use this talent to benefit others.

Ahhhhh.... Cleanliness is next to Godliness