My kids recently came home from a service project, beaming head to toe. To my amazement, they had all volunteered to help at a camp for adults with intellectual disabilities. At Bethesda Camp and Retreat Ministries in Tomball, my kids spent a couple of days assisting these people in doing arts and crafts.

My older children got hooked on the joy that this life-changing service brought them last year, which encouraged them to return this year. My youngest son, however, had never gone before. I was uncertain, but hopeful he would be helpful and behave himself.

I couldn’t have been prouder when he came home reporting of the fun time he had with the people. It was evident that my “little boy” had been changed that day by doing service for others, and he had learned of the happiness that service brings to the one who serves.

Just Serve!

While service is nothing new to our Church, there has now been a recent refocusing on community service, with new ways to connect those who want to serve with those who need help. In a recent Sunday School meeting, local Church leaders taught my ward (congregation) about a new website, sponsored by our Church called Just Serve.org. The site is a service from our Church, but is for everyone in every community.

After typing in your zip code, service is literally at your fingertips. The page fills with service opportunities in your area, and offers something for everyone.

Just in my zip code, there were 42 service opportunities! Some of these services included a school supply drive, shelving books at the library, walking with clinic patients, gardening for food going to the Houston Food Bank, or babysitting for women attending domestic violence therapy.

Once you select a service project that interests you, the site provides the date and time needed, a description of the service, the number of volunteers needed, skills needed, and the contact person’s phone number.

The JustServe app is also available at the App Store and Google Play.

Success Stories

Besides those volunteering in Houston, people around the nation have been joining the community service effort. These volunteers are not all members of our faith, but volunteers from their community who have accessed Just Serve.

The major league baseball players of the San Diego Padres recently partnered with JustServe. Volunteers in their area have worked with the Padres to hold a clothing drive for homeless veterans, a food drive for their local food bank, and a toy drive for Rady’s Children’s Hospital.

JustServe projects in other states include making fleece quilts for the homeless at a rescue mission, a crayon drive for a children’s hospital, beach cleanup, highway cleanup, painting churches, weeding community gardens, volunteering at races and Special Olympic events, and community cleanup and repairs, to name a few.

I am grateful that my children got a taste of service this summer. It seems like yesterday that I was their age and learned the same lesson: service for our fellow man brings joy to our life and peace to our soul.



Jesus taught the best lesson on service in Matthew 25, when He said:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me….Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

In our faith, we believe that we will all stand before Jesus after this life at our Final Judgment. After all He taught us, and after the great atoning sacrifice He made for us, I could not face Him knowing that I had not served my fellow man. Could you?