Who rescued who?
I have often declared that man’s best friend is always welcome at our church facility, but may the church never go to the dogs… Perhaps you’ve seen the car bumper sticker that reads “Who rescued who?” Naturally, there is an insinuation that the dog rescuer is the one that is saved by the fortunate pup who finds its forever home and is rescued from a shelter and who changed the life of its owner forever.
LHCC has enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the kind folks from Invisible Paw Prints, for the past three years. Read an earlier blog on how this partnership started in June of 2020. IPP is an organization led by Christian folks, who train therapy dogs. Oh, and of course they train the handlers as well. Handlers and their cute pups join our program throughout the year to read with our students as they practice their English language reading skills.
We are dependent on volunteers who we pair up with program participants to help us fulfill our mission of providing scholastic, spiritual and social supports to families. This is another way of saying we serve our LHCC family members, both children and adults. However, there’s an important distinction that bears mentioning in the context of who is rescuing who.
You see, we leverage volunteers to, for example, help young students, who need a little help with their reading and homework. When the benefit is mutual, encouraging for the student and fulfilling for the volunteer, we are seized by a tenderness that elevates us to the very largeness of God. As Christians, and well-meaning folks who seek to love our neighbors, we want to bridge the gap that exists between people, especially people who seemingly have nothing in common. Even in service there is a distance. Service provider and service recipient. Service is where we begin, yet it remains the hallway that leads to the ballroom. The ballroom is the place of exquisite mutuality. We maintain that the question volunteers ought to be asking is “What will happen to me here?” not “what can I do for someone else?”. It’s a joy to see volunteers rescued by the connection they have made with their student, and hopefully the introduction of the parent who so appreciates the support.
If you’d like to learn more about who we are and get connected in the hallway, we would love to meet you. Kindly access our Get Involved webpage to view our various volunteer opportunities. If you’ve volunteered with us previously, thank-you. We ask that you invite a friend and visit us at one of our upcoming weekly program events. We have a volunteer fellowship event on Thursday September 8 at 5:45pm.
For more information on the wonderful therapy dog training organization, Invisible Paw Prints, kindly email Ms. Tucker at tsummerville1@att.net
The next post, in two weeks, will conclude the three-part series commemorating LHCC’s 10-year anniversary and what we believe the future holds. Thank you for reading
Brent Morris
August 2022
(Excerpts about kinship quoted herein are from the book by Father Greg Boyle titled Tattoos on the Heart)
