ASL PAPER

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School

St. John's University *

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2790

Subject

Religion

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by DeanDugong2520

Adam McGowan 11/14/19 THE 3300 ASL reflection paper The place I volunteered at was Gospel Baptist Church, in Richmond Hill. This event I participated in was two-fold. For one session I was assisting the elderly at the church during a couple of church events, such as a luncheon on a Sunday, and assisting the elderly in movement, and aid in simple things such as hymnal books and even in having simple conversation on Wednesdays, Fridays, and various Sundays. Among those days was Halloween evening, and their preparations for Thanksgiving, where they would have a thanksgiving service. The church had an event in which they would give out candy and tracks to children in the neighborhood and would then move out to the streets and houses surrounding the church and give to them as well. After they would have an event tailored to the elderly in the neighborhood and the church in order to have them spend some time outside their house. They had signing, meals, and trivia/ games for them to play and enjoy. My time helping Gospel Baptist church was an enlightening, due to the church being in need of help. It was an interesting experience helping the church on Sundays and being immersed in the service and ministry. When I was helping the church with their clean up ministry, I felt rejuvenated in doing a good thing to help God’s people. I was interested to see how the work was done there and felt good to be able to join in and help. It was a good

experience to have with this class because it hits many of the topics we speak about in class. We talk about respect for others and respect for the people we are in charge in, and I felt that was made seen as I was responsible of taking care of a set amount of elderly people and had to ensure I was being respectful of them as people, and the elderly in effect of taking care of them. I learned through these various helping experiences that the church does a lot for their community; a lot more than I had originally thought. The church helped the community in many ways, all for the sake of reaching them and bringing the people to Christ. I also learned that church isn't just a thing to go to on Sundays. A church is also doing things for those who need help in the church and the community. I also learned the reason why churches have so many events for children, and ministries for the elderly. The belief is that if you can reach the children, the adults can be reached as well. By affirming contact and connection with the elderly, they can be sure that the elderly will make efforts to come, but will bring their families, both as a means of transport, and in order to show their families what happens at the church. The children will press their parents to come to church, and eventually, the parents will come as well. I was deeply moved by the empathy the church should in its plans to help the neighborhood and reach out to the children. This was very smart of them, seeing as if you reach the children, you can reach the adults as well. Going back and helping the people at Gospel Baptist church was interesting, in that when you're helping a church it also feels like you are doing work for God as well as for people, and that in itself is very gratifying. Helping the church get ready for their thanksgiving ceremonies was interesting in that I was privy to how the ceremonies were set up and how they were done in the church, something foreign, but welcome to me.

While I enjoyed my time helping the church, they had a fatal flaw that would definitely need to be fixed. They had the zeal and the spirit to do the work, but the execution, and the planning/organizing of the events was subpar at most. They were rather disorganized, something that is most likely because of the church being rather small. Despite this drawback, I found that the group that was there, was very quick and efficient with the work they were doing, and they were very kind and cordial all throughout the event. If I were to change or fix any aspect of the events, all I would do is help the events manager ensure the flow of events and movements flow better and smoother. In every other aspect of the events, such as the caring for the elderly and the children, they performed excellently, and very professional. When I compared my experiences during my ASL to what we discuss in class, I found the activities and treatments to be very similar to each other on many levels. If we first start at the themes of catholic social teaching, a common theme I found throughout the events was the “call to family, community, and participation”. The church expected the members to attend and help during the events and expected the community to attend in order to gain the benefits the events were giving. Another theme I noticed was “care for God’s creation”. This theme is essentially speaking on caring for God’s creations and what he has made for us. In the regards to the micro, middle, and macro levels of ethics and respect to ethical conduct, the breakdown would be as such; at a macro level, as a church they were expected to have outreach and comfort activities for the community, and for all ages, from the young children to the elderly adults. At the middle level, as members of a church, and as children of God they are definitely supposed to participate in these types of events and enjoy them. At the micro level they as individuals have to decide if they wanted to participate in the events, and personally decide if they cared about people enough to participate.

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When looking back on my ASL service and how it’s both meant to get us comfortable in different settings, I can’t help but look deeper into the service and use the chapter in Mathew that pertains to the sheep and goats. In this chapter, it speaks about when the son of man comes in his glory and nations gather around him and He tells those who were blessed by his father to take their inheritance. He then continues to explain why exactly those who were blessed were given the blessing. To give it all a general meaning, those who received the blessing were those who clothed him when he needed cloths, fed him when he needed to be fed. Also, in this chapter, the self-righteous people were seen to be thrown out for their falseness and their lies. This ties in to ASL in general, and my own ASL because for what other reason did God put us on this Earth other than to help our fellow humans? While we are on this Earth, we should endeavor to make life as livable as we can for those around us and help those who are less fortunate and need the help, not because we want a blessing, but because it’s the right thing to do.

ASL PAPER

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