Service has always been a vital part of my life. There is a supernal power in providing service for others that allows an individual to shape their character and discover themselves by getting outside themselves to reach out and help others. In consistent service to others our perspective changes, we can reflect intrinsically and touch a divine nature that lies hidden in each of us. Motivated by pure internal desires we can unlock essential lessons for our personal progression that would otherwise remain locked and undiscovered until we go beyond ourselves and strive to touch in some significant way the lives of others around us.
Recently I have been given the opportunity to be a volunteer for a program called Rising Star Outreach. This program works with leprosy inflicted individuals in leprosy colonies near Chennai, India by providing childhood education to the children of leprosy patients, a micro-lending program to establish small businesses and medical relief through a mobile medical clinic. I will be working with this program for three weeks from July 23-August 13. My major contribution will be with the mobile medical clinic in cleaning wounds and re-bandaging open sores as well as other small tasks as directed by the doctors leading the mobile units. There is a great need for help in these colonies due to poor living conditions such as a lack of clean water and sewage facilities. These conditions provide an environment to propagate further diseases to their already compromised immune systems of the leprosy patients. As a way for us to help invest in providing the needs for the program they ask us volunteers to help fund raise $1750.
I have started this blog as a means to record my service adventures. Please join me in making this happen! I know that many of you feel similarly inspired by the work of Rising Star Outreach and will want to participate alongside of me. Everyone involved will share in the blessings of my service. By contributing $50 or more, you will become a Volunteer Partner. By donating please make sure to include my name, Raymond O'Bryan, as the volunteer you are supporting. I hope, while I'm in India, that you will include those I serve in your prayers. Together we can provide hope, an anchor in our lives, to those who most desperately need it.
