Sharon Colantonio stands in the bathroom of Avery Woods Cottage
No. 7, paint roller in hand, splatters of Dover Cliff White on her baseball
cap, clothes and skin.
As she listens to music, she prays for the students who will
live and study in this dormitory cottage this fall at the University of Mobile
in Alabama.
Sharon Colantonio stands in the bathroom of Avery Woods Cottage
No. 7, paint roller in hand, splatters of Dover Cliff White on her baseball
cap, clothes and skin.
As she listens to music, she prays for the students who will
live and study in this dormitory cottage this fall at the University of Mobile
in Alabama.
This is summer vacation for Colantonio and other Southern Baptists
– including a Louisiana couple – who used the Internet to access the
Southern Baptist North American Mission Board Volunteer Mobilization Information
System.
“I signed up on the (North American American Board) site
as a volunteer, and they contacted me,” says Colantonio, a 23-year-old
physical education specialist. A member at First Baptist Church in Waldorf,
Md., Colantonio combined the Alabama mission project with a visit to her grandparents
home in a neighboring town.
“Ive been doing missions since the summer of my
sophomore year in college,” she says. “No matter where you are, youre
always on mission, always helping someone. Its a lifestyle God has called
me to.”
It is a lifestyle that appeals to others who also used the
new North American Mission Board Web site to locate a mission project that would
provide the perfect fit between their skills, talents and schedule. Workers
at the University of Mobile project included a group from Chipley, Fla., and
James and Kathleen Carroll of Baton Rouge.
The Carrolls had just completed a two-week Campers on Mission
renovation project at Louisiana College in Pineville, when they found the University
of Mobile project on the North American Mission Board Web site. The retired
couple drove their RV over to the University of Mobile campus, parked and started
painting womens dorm rooms.
“With the NAMB site, you can plug in your interests or
talents and search out who wants your participation,” says Carroll, a member
at First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. “When I put in painting,
the University of Mobile project came up. I thought it looked like something
I would like to do.”
The Carrolls spent a week on campus. While they worked, they
prayed.
“We pray for the kids who will use this room,” Carroll explains.
“Thats who were doing this for, so theyll have a good
experience at college.”
The experience of workers such as the Carrolls are exciting
Southern Baptist missions leaders, who say matching volunteers with areas where
their services are needed has become significantly easier thanks to the Internet-based
system.
Just a few years ago, the process of identifying needs and
matching them with volunteers and groups could take months. Now, the Web site
serves as a much more immediate clearinghouse for both volunteers looking for
places to serve and missions leaders wishing to post opportunities.
The system also takes advantage of an individuals initial
excitement about becoming involved in volunteer missions, says Elmer Globe,
adult volunteer manager for the North American Mission Board.
“You can go home from a con-ference excited about a volunteer
missions possibility, go on the Web, and almost immediately have an assignment,”
he notes.
The Web site is the culmination of efforts to streamline the
process of matching volunteers with needs across the country. Initially there
was a list of needs maintained by the agency, and a construction list would
be mailed to state partners and other volunteer mobilization leaders on a periodic
basis. But the process requiring paper applications from both those submitting
requests and volunteers seeking assignments.
Later, the North American Mission Board began publishing OnSite
magazine to promote the cause of volunteers and to provide a regular vehicle
for listing the needs. However, there still was a delay of many months because
of the paper applications and processing that were required, along with the
quarterly production schedule.
The opening of the boards Adult Volunteer Mobilization
Action Center last year streamlined the process somewhat, providing staff and
volunteers who worked to match missions workers with projects. Still, it was
a labor-intensive process handled largely over the telephone, Goble notes.
With the new system, churches with a need for volunteers for
construction, prayerwalking, Vacation Bible School or other ministries can contact
their director of missions, who is authorized to submit the need on the Volunteer
Mobilization site. Those needing volunteers also can post their projects directly
on the Web site. The system automatically will notify their association and
state convention. Meanwhile, individual volunteers and churches can register
on the site and see all the needs that fit their profile of skills and abilities.
“Now, we get letters and emails from both volunteers and
the people who need volunteers saying how they love the system,” Goble
says. “We didnt get many calls like that from the old system. So,
we know its working.”
To become a member of the Volunteer Mobilization Information System, churches
or individuals seeking volunteers can visit the site at www.volunteers.namb.net.
To submit a project in which volunteers are needed, churches may list needs
directly on the Web site or may contact their associational director of missions
or state volunteer mobilization leaders if they do not have Internet access.
(BP)