Serving in One Body is simple. As each opportunity arises, we will post the event on this page and on Facebook. Simply indicate your interest or commitment to serve by emailing info@onebodydfw.org or by saying "I'm Attending" on Facebook. You will receive a confirmation email with further details.
Where: Gateway Apartments, 4712 Gaston Avenue Dallas, TX 75246
When: Saturday, April 17th 1-3PM
What: April Community Service Opportunity
We are hosting a Kids’ Activity Day from 1-3pm. Activities will include: face painting, games, prizes, balloons, etc. Volunteers will be running the activities and interacting with kids and parents.
One Body DFW Contact: Ellen Vuong, member of Vietnamese Baptist Church of Garland
A few weeks ago, I met with Shama Shams, the Community Relations Manager for Family Gateway. Family Gateway is a social service organization that helps homeless families transition into permanent housing. Family Gateway has two locations: a center in downtown Dallas and “Gateway Apartments” on Gaston Avenue. The residents at Family Gateway can call the apartments “home” for a period up to 1 year, and everyone pays rent on a scale based on their earnings. As part of the program, the residents receive career counseling and must abide by rules regarding drug use, curfew, and chores.
I asked Shama to identify Family Gateway’s greatest need and how our group could help. She asked if our group could help with a landscaping project to help make the apartment complex feel more like a home and “less like an institution.” So, that’s what we’re doing! In JUNE.
On April 17th, we are going to host a Kids’ Activity Day from 1-3pm. Instead of just stopping by and leaving flowers, I figured it’d be more worthwhile to get to know the tenants who call Family Gateway, “home.” I invite you to stop by to have some fun with the kids and parents while familiarizing yourself with the location and thinking of some landscaping ideas.
What a great turn out for our first event! Thank you to all the volunteers. I hope you guys had fun and met some interesting people. I don’t know if everyone likes surprises, but I kind of liked the fact that we blindly went into this opportunity. I had no idea what we would be doing. The staff at Mission Arlington was well organized and sent our team out to deliver free goods from the “Handy Tram.” At least, that’s what I think they called it…
We carpooled to an apartment complex that was located a couple of blocks away from Mission Arlington. The tenants were familiar with Mission Arlington’s Handy Tram, because people started following the bus once we pulled into the complex. When we arrived some of the volunteers knocked on doors and informed the tenants that Mission Arlington was giving away free stuff by the apartment mailboxes. The other half of the group unloaded clothes, books, toys, and other knick knacks from the bus. We mingled with the residents and helped them find things and take them back to their apartments. It was a good experience, and One Body DFW plans to volunteer with Mission Arlington again in the future.
Where: Mission Arlington / Mission Metroplex, 210 W South St. Arlington, TX 76010
When: Saturday, March 27th 1-4PM
What: March Community Service Opportunity
Activity is TBD – But the following paragraph is a general description:
“Volunteer groups … help pick up donations, make deliveries, pass out flyers, stock the food pantry, manage the clothing room, work around the office, and a myriad of other day-to-day activities. Mission Arlington hosts health fairs, crime watch socials, neighborhood cookouts, back-to-school parties, day camps, and a multitude of other events. Groups help these events happen by painting faces, grilling hot dogs, knocking on doors, driving buses, and fulfilling every other role imaginable.”
- Jim Burgin of Mission Arlington
One Body DFW Contact: Ellen Vuong, member of Vietnamese Baptist Church of Garland
With the launch of One Body DFW, I wondered, “Is loving our neighbor the same thing as helping our neighbor?” If I think that “I want to help my neighbor,” then I sometimes view my neighbor as someone who lacks something that I can provide. I have food; they are hungry. I have a job; they are unemployed. I have a home; they are looking for shelter. I am part of the “have’s” and they are part of the “have not’s.” I am different than they are.
John 3:16 doesn’t say, “For God so wanted to help the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.” I am humbled that John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.”
So, as we move as One Body DFW, I choose not to help, but to love. I encourage everyone who participates in a One Body DFW community service event to cultivate an attitude of “loving our neighbor” and to regard the neighbors you meet in this journey as a brother or a sister in Christ. Afterall, my neighbor and I are not so different.
We have the same Father.
As the event coordinator, I will organize service opportunities with different social service agencies in the area, so we learn about all types of good work. Many non-profits in the Dallas/Fort Worth area work alongside public and private foundations, generous corporations, and individuals to provide amenities, programs, and guidance to those in need. How blessed we are to live in a country, state, city with these resources! Not every country has these means to provide.
I am SO excited about the opportunities that God will bring our way, this year! For all of you who want to love like Jesus loved, I invite you to serve at our organized events. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” I look forward to serving the community alongside all of you.
- Ellen, Event Coordinator for One Body DFW
Thank you for visiting One Body DFW. We’re just getting started, but we already have some great opportunities lined up! Please be patient and check back often as we begin posting each event. We hope you are just as excited as we are to serve the Dallas/Fort Worth community as One Body.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us directly at info@onebodydfw.org.
