The huge impact of volunteering

LERT volunteers clean out homes affected by recent flooding near St. Mark’s Lutheran Ministries on Saturday, May 13, 2017, in Eureka, Mo. LCMS Communications/Frank Kohn

According to data from 2017, the value of volunteers continues to increase roughly 2.5 percent per year and currently sits at just over $24 per hour. Approximately $65 billion of that volunteer effort was given by faithful Christians serving through their church. (Source)

There have been several large-scale disasters in the last year. While crews are still working on rebuilding Houston and the surrounding areas affected by Hurricane Harvey, busloads of volunteers poured into the Carolinas and the Florida Panhandle to begin work after Hurricanes Michael and Florence.

Already today, volunteers from around the country are working in Nebraska to rebuild after a round of historic spring floods that threaten to affect large areas of the Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys well into May 2019.

Perhaps you haven’t volunteered yet, or perhaps you’ve only volunteered a little, but every little bit helps.

If you would like to learn more about how you and your church can volunteer in times of disaster, send us an email at disaster@lcms.org to tell us where to mail your free informational packet to share with your church.

Together, we can share the mercy of Christ in the midst of disaster.