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Heath Bradley, Global Manager of JustServe, and Elder Kevin W. Pearson, Utah Area President, with a young volunteer as a bell is rung to celebrate another packaged box of meals at the Silicon Slopes Serves event on October 14, 2021, in Salt Lake City, Utah. 2021 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Mary Richards, Church News
Heath Bradley remembers a Christmas years ago when his family was struggling. His mom was raising him and two sisters alone in Arizona and trying to make ends meet.
After she worked all day at her minimum wage job, and the children did their homework, they would go out in the evenings and knock on doors to see if they could paint street addresses for extra money.
“We were always praying that people would answer the door and help us,” he said.
One day seemed particularly discouraging, until one lady answered the door and said she was expecting them and had responded to a prompting to prepare things for them.
“She brought out three large boxes of food and proceeded to say, ‘This isn’t from me, this is from the Lord. He is mindful of you. He loves you,’” said Bradley. She also gave his family some money and told them, “Merry Christmas.”
Bradley said that moment will always be etched in his heart. He shared the story in a Church News podcast episode, as he explained how service at Christmas and all year long changes lives.
What Is JustServe
Bradley is now the global manager of the Church’s JustServe initiative, a tool that connects service organizations with volunteers around them by zip code, either online at JustServe.org or through the app. He works under the direction of Sister Sharon Eubank, JustServe director and first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency.
The premise of JustServe, he explained, is really on the first and second great commandments — to love God, and then love your neighbor. It helps communities.
Service brings together the whole human race “in love, peace and unity. It breaks down any barriers. Our differences really aren’t differences as we serve hand in hand,” Bradley said.
Recent JustServe projects have centered around collecting supplies for Afghan refugees, connecting with tornado victims’ needs, donating blood, collecting stuffed animals for charity, organizing birthday supplies for foster children, gathering winter clothing for homeless families, and cleaning up around communities.
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Blood donors and volunteers of the locations across the state participating in a one-day blood drive and JustServe.org service day on Saturday, December 4, 2021. 2021 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Building Habits of Service
Each year, many turn their thoughts to service between Thanksgiving and Christmas — including through #LightTheWorld service prompts, making a purchase at a Giving Machine, or through Church activities or family service traditions.
“Christmas time brings out something within each of us that helps us refocus our lives on what is most important,” said Bradley. Hearts soften and change, providing an opportunity to connect and to reconnect.
But the need lasts beyond December. The real work to be done with the poor and those in need is year-round, said Bradley. Every nonprofit or charitable organization could use volunteers giving of their time or money or service in order to help others, even if it is just a small amount.
Bradley hopes as people use the JustServe website or app, they build habits of service throughout the year that feed back into that vision of the first and second great commandment — loving God and loving one’s neighbor.
The Benefits of Service
“When we can participate in these projects, whether big ones or small ones, it reminds us there’s still goodness out there. There are still good people out there,” said Robin Gephart, a JustServe coordinator in San Diego.
Gephart said people are looking for things to do, because they recognize that service makes them feel better. She works on making local Church events on JustServe expand in scope to include the larger community. Posting the JustServe links on social media like NextDoor, Facebook and Instagram show neighbors that there are needs they can meet right in their area, she said.She pointed to a study of people over 50 years old who performed service. And when they served for two hours a week, their mortality issues — or things that would cause them to die — decreased by 44%.
And other research showed when teenagers serve strangers, their self-esteem increases, their hope and gratitude increases, and their aggression and delinquency behaviors decrease.
Bradley says young people in the Church are finding and creating projects on JustServe for youth activities, or as a launchpad to find their own interests, or in ways to prepare for college admissions essays, or because they have been raised by righteous parents who teach service by example.
He was surprised and thrilled when his own daughter asked if she could do a service project with friends for her birthday party this year.
“This doctrine is just ingrained in our children,” he said.
Service and Becoming Like Christ
President Russell M. Nelson invited the world to serve others this Christmas in large or small ways.
“I invite you to make room in your heart for those around you who may be struggling to see the light of the Savior and to feel His love,” President Nelson said in a video message released Thursday, December 16. “No gifts will mean as much as acts of pure love you offer to the lonely, the worn down and the weary.”
Bradley said the whole goal of service is to be like Christ — authenticity in service is charity, the pure love of Christ.
“We don’t love our neighbors to convert them. That’s not it. We love our neighbors because we are converted,” he said.
Helping someone in their journey to reconnect to God is one of the most noble things you can do, Bradley explained, but sometimes that can’t happen when someone needs food or shelter or emotional support.
The woman who followed a prompting and served Bradley’s family when he was a boy in Arizona did so at a time when his mother had fallen away from the Church, “but the Lord was preparing her to return,” said Bradley. The woman was the Lord’s hands that night.
Bradley said the Lord will guide and direct others as they seek for service opportunities this Christmas and all year long.
God is in the relationship between both the giver and the receiver of service, he said. “That’s where God can change lives.”
Copyright 2021 Deseret News Publishing Company.