Serving to Love
Housewives, students, businessmen, directors of giant organizations, children… they all came to a barren patch of cement in the middle of Ram 2 University on December 22nd.
They came for one reason and one reason alone.
To serve.
You see, every year Ruth Center, Project L.I.F.E.’s ministry to needy elderly in Bangkok slums, puts on an incredible Christmas feast. The ones invited are the elderly, the ones Jesus loves but society forgets, because they are poor, alone, slum dwellers, and often crippled or sick. To Noi, Jareun, Goiy and Mon, Ruth Center’s caring staff, they are family, and because they are, they want to make Christmas a special time for them.
There’s only one problem. They help over 200 elderly people. Each holds an invitation to the feast. But there are just 4 staff.
That’s when the volunteers come. Each one loving Jesus and wanting to be Jesus’ hands and heart to these special ones He loves so much. Each group of volunteers is assigned one table of 8 elderly to love and serve. They fill the water glasses, get the food, help the crippled to eat, run to the stage to get presents for the ones at their table, and pray for each one. There’s laughter, games, food and lots and lots of gifts for each of the elderly. But the best gift, the biggest gift, is the care poured out so generously by the volunteers. It opens hearts, like the heart of tiny frail 83 year old Grandmother Chantha. This was her first Ruth Center Christmas. She was so overwhelmed by God’s love through the volunteers that as she left, she smilingly declared “I feel like you are my daughters!”
