Editor’s note: April is National Volunteer Month. All month, we’ll be featuring devotional thoughts from Buckner volunteers around Texas. If you’d like to browse our online database of current volunteer opportunities, click here.

"Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned love of the brothers, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently." –1 Peter 1:22

We spent the morning playing kickball, tag, basketball, cards and making crafts. Laughter and conversation quickly filled the awkward silence created by getting to know new people for the first time. It was our first time volunteering with Buckner and we soon realized that God was connecting our two ministries together.

Outreach and volunteering expresses the kindness of God’s heart – that He is intimately involved in every detail of our lives and sees us in the midst of our darkest moments. When people show up at an emergency center to do nothing but play games for a few hours, it demonstrates the love of a Father who comes to our rescue every single time.

The beauty of the Kingdom of God is that we all belong and fit in. Regardless of what we have experienced, we all can find a seat at the table. The children we have been blessed to spend time with are more than just cute faces that make us feel like we are doing a good deed. They are our brothers and our sisters in the Kingdom and through our time spent volunteering with Buckner, we can share the love of Jesus Christ and plant seeds of hope and redemption in their hearts. We build bridges that create a space for the redeeming work of God to take place.

Sometimes the seed planting looks like kicking a soccer ball, and other times it looks like sitting on a swing and telling stories, but it’s in the constant showing up that the seeds are watered. So we will keep showing up and let our lives speak these words - you are our brothers and our sisters and you are not forgotten.

Angela Clavijo volunteers with her youth group on the Buckner Children’s campus in Beaumont, Texas.