Ways to
HELP
A Servant’s Heart
By Nate Gutierrez, former SMT
Volunteering… It’s not a word thrown around often in these financially troubling times, and it is almost unheard of when
it comes to teenagers. Honestly, who would want to work for free when you could almost just as easily work for money? That
was my mindset when I was first approached by a friend about volunteering out at Camp Tejas. I had worked at the camp a few
times before but I had never volunteered; I was always paid for working there. I just wasn’t sure if I could devote an entire day to
working without pay! Like many teens, I had an entire list of things that I wanted to buy, like video games or the newest phone
to hit the market, but I knew what I was getting into when I reluctantly accepted my friend’s
proposal. I knew I would work a lot of hours, but I also knew that the camp needed the help on
that day. Still, the thought of not getting paid irritated me. So I worked a full day for free, which
consisted of waking up at seven in the morning to prepare for breakfast, cleaning that meal
up, repeating with lunch, doing the climbing wall and zipline in the afternoon, and finishing up
with dinner. The total time I worked was close to twelve hours.
I sat in the back of my mother’s van on the way home after my long day, thinking
about how much I had worked, and how much money I didn’t get paid. I would have gotten
close to eighty dollars if I worked those hours somewhere else. But it was right there, in the
I slowly began
to realize that
volunteering at
the camp was
one of the most
fulfilling things
I’d ever done!
back of that van, that it struck me. I was rewarded with the smiles from the campers as I gave them cookies during lunch, with
their jubilant screams as they leapt off the top of the zipline, and the sincere “thank-yous” I received at the end of the day. I
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