A long list of other volunteers and I have got the perfect storm of events in coming days.  

On Thursday we set up our Chaplaincy Book Fair in Maroske Hall at Horsham College and invite the staff for nibbles, drinks and browsing of the merchandise after school.  The hard slog of moving books will be blitzed by a reviving glass of bubbly with friends to finish.

Friday sees us hosting a concert at Horsham West Primary School.  We’ll be introducing our Operation 19:14 headline act for 2018 in the form of singer/songwriter – and School of Hard Knocks Assistant Music Director – Levi McGrath.  He’s been to Africa with World Vision.

Then I’ll dash back to the Book Fair to help in the gold coin donation café, serving soup made by Mrs. Opie’s Year 9 Café Class – thanks chefs!  Did you know that teens involved in volunteer work can expect to enjoy increased academic achievement, civic responsibility and life skills that include leadership and interpersonal self-confidence?  Yes students, you are making more than soup, you are building your future.

Spending a couple of hours completing the very physical Book Fair pack-up on Saturday afternoon - tipping damaged books into the recycling truck -  we’ll just have time to recover before completing roles in our Operation 19:14 movie fundraiser Sunday afternoon at the cinema. We’ll be watching, “I Can Only Imagine”.   

I can only imagine having time to then prepare for our first lunchtime Special Religious Instruction session at school on Monday involving games, stories, and of all things, mime. I’ll probably be speechless by then anyway.  

A crazy five days that will involve fun and lots of laughs, I’ll be working alongside passionate volunteers who are other-centred because they know how important these projects are to the wellbeing of our community.

Or, maybe they’ve also read the results of the research reporting that volunteers tend to live statistically longer than those who do not volunteer.  

Happy National Volunteer Week, ‘Give a little, change a lot’.