I know. There are some people who think that volunteering in the church is a light form of service. Many assume that since we're in the church and this is the House of God, filled with blessings and all, there's no stress and pressure in there.
Twelve years ago, that was what I thought. Twelve years after, I realized it was completely the opposite.
Volunteering in the church requires one to know how to multi-task. There is not much people who would render their time and effort to something that won't pay them at all, let's face it. So it takes a whole lot of deal on knowing a lot of things to be fully effective in this kind of service. Of course, there's no preferences. Anyone can offer something they can do, but it's just good to know a lot of things.
Because serving in the church is a daunting task that most times, I need to stay up late to finish designs for tarpaulins which will be printed the next day. Sometimes, I even had to rush myself to come up with something within 15 minutes to beat the deadline. There are also moments when I have to cancel getaways and trips just to fulfill my responsibilities.
Talking with my friends, we often pull all-nighters just to prepare for big events - which are often planned and finalized a few days earlier. We're used to cramming and rush though, but still, not everyone can handle that, right? Also, we tend to release a lot of money while volunteering. When things have to be completed and we're short with money, funds come from our personal pockets.
Now who said being a church volunteer is easy?
This is not - in any way - belittling the other forms of church volunteering. It's just that we have to clear the assumptions that people in the church are just laid back because money keeps pouring in from the donations and what-nots. It's not like that.
To those asking why we're doing this, I can provide you with my own personal thoughts: We're doing this because we want to. This is our form of sacrifice, penitence, and compromise with God. We do this because we want to be forgiven, because we want to ask for something. Religious life, after all, applies the give-and-take principle after all. God surely can give us everything, but decent human beings know that we need to give God everything as well.
Furthermore, serving in the church paves way to real friendship and family. Working in the parish and dedicating my time to my responsibilities allowed me to meet beautiful and wonderful people who are now huge parts of my religious life. And I'm just so thankful. Very thankful.
