Summer is always such an awesome and crazy time around CSM. Thousands of volunteers come through our Ministry Center each summer, which means that thousands of people are learning about CSM and what we do in our city! In June alone, we have had about 700 people work on projects from food distribution, to garden care and harvest, to house repair and aquaponics fish house building... and everything in between! We are so thankful for our volunteer groups that come in throughout the summer and throughout the year to help us to move God's mission along in our city!
This month we have had multiple groups come in and help us work on our aquaponics beds and new fish house, including Hebron Baptist (Dacula,GA), Poplar Ridge (Bristol, TN), Cahaba Park (Birmingham, AL), and Regions Bank (Birmingham, AL). Everything from cleaning the rocks, to building and filling the media beds for the greenhouses was accomplished. We put some finishing touches on the fish house to help make it livable for the fish that we have coming in, and the groups helped paint and caulk the outside of the fish house.
Hebron Baptist and a group from Regions Bank helped clean out our furniture area and find matching sets for the bed frames. During this project, one of the groups had the power go out. Instead of dropping everything, the group pulled out the flashlights and kept working(Hebron). Later in the day, Regions finished the project matching up the remaining bed sets.
Last week, we had our groups sort through a confusing ocean of clothes and miscellaneous donated objects in order to consolidate and organize them into neat, easily accessible groups. This involved working in two different areas of the warehouse; the thrift store donations area and the donated clothes area. The clothes will go to Church of the Highlands’ Clothing Boutique ministry. Sorting the garments into men, women, and children/infant sections in order to bag or hang them up will help them get the clothes out faster.
In a different part of the catacombs that is the warehouse, we waded into the jungle of donations that are to go to our thrift store partners. We had a similar sorting process for these donations as well. And the rest of their time was spent organizing and decluttering other areas which needed to be cleaned. After that they tackled sorting medical supplies, weeding the gardens and cleaning donated flatware and dishes.
Some groups come from within the city while others come from states as far away as Michigan and Connecticut, but everyone who comes to work with us is having a huge impact for the Kingdom of God and learning more about the issues that the citizens of Birmingham face each and every day. Together we are serving the needs of thousands throughout the city and thanks to these groups, we are able to do all that we do. Thanks to everyone that has served with us in the month of June!
