The women are following the invitation of the Relief Society general presidency to serve during the month leading up to the 180th anniversary of the organization’s founding. And as they do, their lives are changing.
“Doing service strengthens your love for your neighbor and gives you the opportunity to show it,” said Shelly Olivier of the Longmont Colorado Stake. “It builds you up and makes you stronger and you can bring that extra spirit and strength back home.”
The invitation was to create an account on ServeNow.org, find a project in the community and complete it with someone you love. ServeNow is a website and app that connects community organizations with volunteers.
In areas where ServeNow is not yet active, women were invited to run a local service project and post about it using the hashtag #JustServe.
The Relief Society was founded on March 17, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Read more: Relief Society turns 179: President Bingham’s message to women, including those who doubt a place in the Church
Many Acts of Service
Some wards and stakes came together for service activities in March. Others have already done it. ServeNow UK’s social media accounts posted about women gathering supplies for refugees in Eastern Europe. The North Carolina Winston-Salem Stake posted on Facebook about collecting school supplies to give to Catholic Charities to benefit refugee families. The Gastonia North Carolina Stake also posted on Facebook about their stake women’s conference on February 19, where members also collected and assembled items for refugees.
“It was incredible to see so many women coming together, organizing collections … and working side by side,” wrote Jennifer Lawrence, president of the Gastonia Stake Relief Society, “Everyone did their part.”
A group in Pocatello, Idaho posted about volunteering at the Idaho Food Bank on February 23, filling emergency food bags and sorting nearly 1,300 pounds of food. Another post, from Wills Point, Texas, showed how the Relief Society “filled an entire gym with sewing machines” as they worked to make clothes for a charity that supports families who have lost their babies. “We are grateful for all the time, talents and hard work to bless the community,” the post read.
Other women are posting individually this month about their local service. For example, Olivier went with her cousin Sara Strong to sort and store donations for the victims of December’s massive fire in Boulder County, Colorado.
“I was a little nervous, because I didn’t know exactly what to expect,” Olivier told the Church News. “They had a lot of work for us. We clean the shelves on which we hang clothes. They’d pull out a box of donation items like shampoos and canned goods and other beauty and health care items, and we’d set them up like we were filling a store. Then we went to the bedding area and folded the sheets, arranged them and labeled them.”
She had been thinking that the young women in her neighborhood might tie blankets for fire victims as a service activity. But she noticed that the donation center already had a lot of blankets, while most people really needed things like sheets and bath mats, or hypoallergenic products. She reminded them to look first at needs and then see how to best serve people.
Olivier plans to sign up for another shift to volunteer again at the donation center and hopes to bring a sister-in-law or friend with her.
In Hawaii, Valerie-Mae Manoa has been volunteering in her community every Saturday. She is also the ServeNow area specialist for the islands. She is trying to get the word out to others about the service projects they can do nearby or remotely.
“You can only encourage people to participate in ServeNow if you do it yourself,” said Manoa. “You get that spirit that the Lord wants you to get, or that the Lord wants to share with you about how it feels to serve.”
Relief Society and ServeNow work together
Janette Knight, president of the Boise Idaho Amity Stake Relief Society, said service is a big focus for her stake.
“Any time we can get together, it’s great,” he said. Knight explained how his stake has an annual ServeNow open house, bringing together local projects and inviting the community. He held one last month and 400 people came.
“We held it in February to help people get through the winter blues,” she said, “but then, seeing the new challenge, I encouraged the sisters in the stake with their activities to include a service project. If they can’t think of something, we send them to ServeNow.”
Knight said they completed 10 projects in two hours at the ServeNow open house, with something for every age. Since then, other stake Relief Society presidents have asked her about it. She said having a working group or specialist at ServeNow is a key first step.
Some areas don’t know what to put on ServeNow, he said, or don’t know what projects to do. But it starts with connections in the community. “You have to reach out and look at your community. We have a spreadsheet in our workgroup, listing our connections and who we interact with, and it spreads.”
Within a month of doing the spreadsheet, Knight said 125 projects were listed on ServeNow in the Boise area.
Even before the invitation from the Relief Society general presidency, but especially since then, Manoa has been holding more training meetings for stakes in Hawaii on how to use ServeNow. She and her husband, Brian Manoa, also meet with community organizations and tell them about the website.
“There are people who think that we as Latter-day Saints only minister to our own people,” he said. “That has given me the drive to get out there and talk to members of the community so they know who we are, that our scope of service is bigger than just the walls of our home and chapel.”
‘Charity never fails’
Knight said that as she prepares for the Relief Society’s 180th anniversary, she has been reflecting on the organization’s purpose and what it means to her.
“It means relief and support for others, a way to connect and know that there are others on your side,” she said. “It’s not just the sisters on Sunday, it’s the sisters in your area, it’s all the women. They need to meet this support group and this relief is here for them.”
The Relief Society is the largest and one of the oldest women’s organizations in the world. His motto is “Charity never fails”. Moroni 7:47 says, “Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it abides forever; and whoever possesses it at the last day, it will be well with him.”
Sister Reyna I. Aburto, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, wrote in February: “Relief Society sisters have tremendous potential to do good in the world. Join us this month as we celebrate 180 years of Relief Society serving our local communities.”
And Sister Sharon Eubank, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, said she, too, would serve: “What better way to honor your mission of spreading the pure love of Jesus Christ to the world than by joining a project of service in your community?
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