The Sharing Shed

So, right behind my youth group there is a barn, also known as the Sharing Shed. The Sharing Shed is run by a handful of amazing, selfless women who work very hard to keep the place running. What exactly does the Sharing Shed do? Well, first of all, it shares. Families can come to the shed to take things that they need if they just moved into a home or apartment and don't have the money to buy anything to furnish their new home with. These families or single mothers usually come from shelters, and often have nothing.

The Sharing Shed provides furniture, beds, blankets, children's toys, and even kitchen supplies to anyone who needs them. People are constantly donating things, and these items go into the main barn and need to be organized into their designated areas. They also need people who can deliver the items to the homes of the families. To do this, they need volunteers, lots and lots of volunteers. There are heavy couches and other heavy furniture that need to be moved, loads of dishes and toys that need to be organized, and there is a constant stream of stuff coming in and going out.

This is all a prelude to my main story.

As I mentioned before, the Sharing Shed is literally in the back yard of our youth group, which sits on about 4 acres of beautiful grassy field.

My neighbors, the Lockett's, invited me to go to Forest Park a few weeks ago to see the balloon glow the night before the big balloon race. Only Mrs. Lockett and I ended up going. She's the mom of the whole family, and is a tad younger than my mom. We tried to get to the balloon glow, and the whole thing was a completely crazy story that I'm not even going to go into. In a nutshell, we didn't even make it to the balloon glow and ended up going home. On the way back Mrs. Lockett and I were talking about things, and the Sharing Shed was brought up. I didn't know a lot about it except that it was behind my youth group, and every Wednesday I saw a few teenagers and a few older women, none of which I knew, walking around.

I asked Mrs. Lockett to tell me what exactly the Sharing Shed did, and she launched into a whole spiel. By the end of our conversation I knew a change had to be made. Here is what she told me:

The whole place is run by a few women, all of whom devote most of their time maintaining the place. Vicki runs the whole joint. There is also LeAnn. One thing the Sharing Shed doesn't provide is clothes, so when people donate bags of clothes or shoes, LeAnn takes them home, washes ALL of them, and sells them. With the money she makes, she buys gas cards for families who can't afford to drive out to the Sharing Shed to pick up things that they need. She makes about $50-100 a month off the clothes.

There is also a huge dumpster in the back where all the junk gets thrown away, and there is an anonymous man who pays $300 every other month to have it dumped. This boggled my mind.

To top off the story, Mrs. Lockett asked me if I'd seen the teenagers working there every week. I had seen them, but had never put much thought into it. She proceeded to tell me that this youth group comes to volunteer every Wednesday. They come from Summit Church in Fenton. Fenton, you ask? Well let's just say that Fenton is by no means close... at all. As a matter of fact, it's almost an hour away from the Sharing Shed, and they come every week except the last Wednesday of the month, and put in hours of hard work.

By the end of her story, I was feeling a lot of things. First, I felt absolutely ashamed for being ignorant to all of this. Second, I felt really angry that I didn't know about it sooner. I was a bit angry at our youth pastor, because apparently these women had asked him if our youth group could help, and he hadn't ever given them a definite answer.

Our youth group was sitting in front of an outreach opportunity that occured every week, right under our noses, while we sat inside and enjoy food, music, and each other's company, and while a different youth group from a good distance away was working very hard.

Something had to be done.

I started by going to the Sharing Shed the next morning, and talking to the ladies that worked there. It was true; they had asked for our help before, but had never gotten any. On top of that, they needed our help. They don't have nearly enough volunteers to get things done. I got some specifics from them, like how many families come in a week, what days they needed the most help, etc.

I told everyone in our Saturday morning Bible study about the issue, and they too were surprised, as far as I could tell, and were willing to help get everyone in our youth group involved in this matter. We also agreed that we would go to the Sharing Shed after our Bible study every Saturday.

The next Wednesday I arrived early to youth group, and helped with the Sharing Shed. Let me tell you, it was hard work. I was sweating, and with only me and four other kids from the different youth group, we didn't put much of a dent in all the furniture that needed to be moved. About 30 kids showed up to youth group that evening, and I made an announcement to everyone about the matter. I had already talked to our youth pastor, and we had decided that we would have designated Wednesdays where instead of having youth group, we would help.

The next Saturday, our Bible study group went to help out. We got a lot done, and the women were so grateful. They told us that what we did in 2 hours would have taken them 3 weeks. We also got to see and help these families who came and picked out items. It's absolutely amazing to see how a little help can be so impacting.

Ever since then, things have changed. This past Wednesday we didn't have youth group, and instead worked at the Sharing Shed. With so many of us, we got everything done within 2 hours. It was amazing, and these women are so grateful for our help!

I know it's a long story, but it's really gotten me thinking lately. God has really taught me a life lesson through this. We are so blind to the people around us in need, the people who truly need a love that only God can give them through other christians. We're an outreach youth group, and there was a huge opportunity right in front of us that we were walking past every week, not even questioning whether or not we could give our time. I felt extremely convicted by this. Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to loving people who need it the most.

These are three of the women who volunteer there. Vicki is in the red shirt, LeAnn is in the white, and Glenda is in the middle. All these women are loving, incredibly selfless and hard-working. God is smiling every time a new family is provided with the things they need. :)