Catholic News Agency: Making a difference: Volunteers offer the gift of service

The impact that volunteers make throughout the diocese and globally is endless. Answering a selfless calling of faith, individuals see summer service as an opportunity to build stronger communities, offer Christ-like compassion and change lives.

Jamie Chapman grew up volunteering in her hometown of Dacula, Georgia. The Portsmouth Abbey School student had always seen service as something simple, something she did to help people and the community, but a recent 10-day summer service trip to Lourdes, France changed the simplicity of the act.

“Volunteering in Lourdes has been the most humbling experience of my life,” the 17-year-old explained. “I volunteered to help the Hospital Pilgrims, but I feel as though they helped me on a much deeper level.”

After her conversion to Catholicism in 2009, Chapman found her new faith somewhat overwhelming. She felt called to pursue her faith by volunteering in France this summer for the Ampleforth Lourdes Hospitalite.

“I decided to volunteer in Lourdes to better understand what faith really means,” she said. “I needed to understand what these people had found in Lourdes that drove them so close to God, to be so reverent in their own faith.”

Chapman shared that volunteering has had a tremendous impact on her faith.