Work Injury Leads Volunteer to the Mission

Mark Green (3rd from left) is pictured here with Mission staff
and James, a Christian Life Program participant (far right).

Mark Green began volunteering at City Union Mission in October of last year.  He had sustained a work related injury to his fingers that September and had subsequent surgery to mend them. When Mark began to feel well enough to be up and about, he told his employer he didn’t want to just sit at home and do nothing. He had a desire to be doing something productive to keep his mind busy, knowing that staying busy would be therapeutic as he recovered.  Mark’s employer put him in touch with the Mission.

Mark helped process books donated to the Mission by using a program to assess the value of a book and determine its next destination. He also helped box up books after they were sorted and then labeled the box to get it ready for delivery.  Mark has worked alongside one of our Christian Life Program participants and has been an encourager to him as well.

At various times Mark would help with other projects as they came up, such as sorting donations and organizing them into categories. He also assisted with Christmas projects.

Mark shared with us, “It has been a blessing for me to be in the surroundings of a Christian, faith-based organization the past four months. This experience has helped me stay in a positive frame of mind during my recovery.  I will treasure these months I’ve had to work with the staff of City Union Mission.”  

Mark’s presence has been a great blessing to us and the staff has enjoyed having him here.  We were pleased to hear that he is interested in volunteering with the Mission in the near future. 

(Submitted by Tammy Sharp, CORE Volunteer Administrator at City Union Mission)