I wish volunteer work paid better!

I spent the morning doing one of my favorite things--Volunteering! Once a month I go to the Matthew 25 clinic in the basement of the Good Samaritan Center in Excelsior Springs. It is a free medical clinic that a church member, who is also an ER doctor, started. I am also proud to call him a friend. Here is the kicker....I go to do this "good deed for others" and end up enriching my life each time. The time I spend there flies by, I get to sit and visit with people and just learn. It is a long running joke in my house that I have a sign on my forehead that says "enough about me...let's talk about YOU!" because I am forever getting more than I bargain for when I say "Hi! How are you?"

What I am learning is that people are having a tough go of it. The economy is bad, jobs are scarce, and there is more uninsured people than I want to mention. (And I am selfish enough to get down when my credit card bill comes and I forgot how much I had just charged on my last shopping spree. Time for AA.....Attitude Adjustment!) So, I listen, I smile, and then I tell them what a good job they are doing with the lousy luck they've got. I spoil the children (with hugs and tickles, coloring books, gratuitious praise for their drawings, endless games of hide and seek, asking about their favorite things to do at school, and I never, ever tell them that they can't spin in the office chairs.) and I spoil the adults (by just sitting there and listening.) I swear, I would volunteer full-time if it paid the bills!

By the way, we do medical stuff there too. :) Today we did a school physical for a new 7th grader who is going to play football....and I bet he excels, because his eyes lit UP when he told me about it. We helped a person with raging poison ivy, a mother who had an abcessed tooth get antibiotics and a referral for free dental care, and gave reassurance to a woman who found a lump in her breast and got her a referral for GYN care. Because, get this, she had been to her Dr. 3 years ago, then lost her insurance. Now she needs to go back, but because of the 3 year time frame she is considered a new patient and THEY ARE NOT ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS! Soooo she has a lump in her breast and an IUD(sorry for the TMI) that needs removed and can't see anyone without self pay $ upfront. This health care reform better get figured out and fast. People are getting mentally and physically beat down by the current system.


As I step down from my soap box I will sign off. This day started off fantabulous, and now I am off to "lead" the teenagers through the book of Daniel. Wish me luck. Better yet, Pray for me.

Sarah
PS. Find somewhere to volunteer. You will get so much JOY from it!