#35 Days of Dares #28 Dare to Change the World
Some of the best adventures I’ve had in life stem from volunteering. Since I was a teenager I’ve always volunteered in some capacity—helping a mother with a disabled child, youth leader, Sunday School teacher, fundraising for charities, event management, drama coach, writing articles and scripts, training teachers in Cambodia and East Timor.
Volunteering is part of who I am and is driven by the belief that if we have been given resources, talents or skills and we have the capacity to help others, then we should.
I don’t believe I can change the whole world, but by playing my part and doing what I can a part of the world can be changed.
Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
Margaret Mead
If each one of us chooses to do something, to contribute to the betterment of mankind, to create something that inspires or to give others the resources they need, even if it is for one person at a time, the world will be changed. In fact, it is our responsibility.
When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man! John Wesley
I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of time travel and the idea of the ramifications of one small event in the past being changed. Back to the Future would have to be one of my all-time favourites.
If we apply the concept of altering circumstances through time travel to volunteering, what would the ramifications be? I watched a Foreign Correspondent story titled Granpower! Grandmothers in Canada partner with grannies in South Africa whose families have been decimated by AIDS and all their lives have been changed. It started with ten grannies and has now grown into a movement of sorts.
These grandmothers are inspiring and inspired by their involvement in this programme.
If we all take what we have and share it with others who need it, the effect multiplies. The ramifications for good will resound through the ages to come.
I’ve been traveling to Cambodia since 2005 and have seen an organisation grow from one centre with one hundred children to twenty three centres with two thousand three hundred children being educated and their families fed. My part has been to train teachers and organise on-going support. I have been done out of a job, as the locals have taken over their own training. This was always the aim and I am so proud to have been a part of this.
Dedicate your life to a cause greater than yourself, and your life will become a glorious romance and adventure. Mack Douglas
Our generation does not want its epitaph to read, ‘We kept charity overhead low.’ We want it to read that we changed the world. Dan Pallotta
I think there is a drive in us to want to change the world, but sometimes we’re not sure how. Perhaps it’s simpler than we think. Just care, do something and see what happens.
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. Dr Suess
#365adventure is a book lover’s year of adventures. Adventures in travel, friendship, family, soul, heart and, of course, book stores!
