Congregations answer MLK’s question, ‘What are you doing for others?’

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

United Church of Christ congregations have been actively answering that question in many ways, including embracing the Civil Rights leader’s federal holiday, MLK Jr. Day  — held the third Monday in January since 1986 — as a day of service rather than a day off from work and school.

This year, as the third Monday coincided with Jan. 20’s presidential election, the events in Washington, D.C. did not detract from King’s prophetic call to servanthood.

In Shillington, Pennsylvania, more than 75 people — 50 children and youth and 25 adults — gathered at Immanuel United Church of Christ for the annual MLK Youth Day of Service, an event made possible in partnership with community organizations including the Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks and Reform Congregation Oheb Sholom.

“This is a ‘day on’ rather than a ‘day off’ for our children and youth,” said the Rev. Jayme Babczak, Immanuel’s associate pastor. “Instead of playing in the snow and enjoying cups of hot cocoa, we put our hearts and hands to work.”

R.M., a ninth grader, was one of the many youths from Immanuel UCC who was eager to participate by making sandwiches for the hungry, writing notes to homebound residents and thank-you cards to Shillington’s first responders. “Just because it’s a day off doesn’t mean you have to stay home and do nothing,” R.M. said.

Service instills compassion

With the help of many hands from “friends of all ages, from preschool to the elderly,” Babczak said that more than 300 sandwiches were made for New Journey Community Outreach, an organization providing 400 meals daily to those experiencing food insecurity.

Children and youth also assembled 500 “power packs” — baggies filled with high-protein snacks and ready-to-heat meals — to be given to students in the Governor Mifflin School district to fill in nutrition gaps they might experience during holiday weekends.

“We want to make sure that on long weekends students have meals that sustain them,” said Babczak.

While helping those in need is the main goal of Shillington’s MLK Youth Day of Service, its secondary goal is to inspire and instill in the next generation of helpers the compassion — and commitment — for serving.

“It felt good being part of it because we know what we’re doing helps people who don’t have the resources they need. It makes a great impact. It really shows a lot of promise for the future,” said T.H., a seventh grader from Immanuel.

L.D., an eleventh-grader, too, found the service day experience “amazing,” not only to be able to help others, but in seeing many people in the community coming out to help as well.

For Babczak, watching the children and youth serve was inspiring and humbling, especially when the youngest asked why they were making sandwiches and for whom.

“It’s that spirit of curiosity that leads to compassion,” she said.

Building the beloved community

For years, Betsy Schneider, a member of First Congregational Church of Reading, Massachusetts, attended her town’s MLK breakfast. While “a lovely event,” she admitted that she always came away from it with a question gnawing at her heart.

“I would leave the breakfast wondering, ‘now what?’ What else can I do?” said Schneider.

Schneider raised her question to the folks at First Congregational who quickly decided to organize a MLK Day of Service. That was 15 years ago. And today, builders of the beloved community King envisioned, continue coming out strong in Reading, gathering at the church to participate in several outreach projects.

This year was no exception as the MLK Service Day, now coordinated under the auspices of Reading Cares, a nonsectarian service organization created by First Congregational to encourage volunteerism. The group hosted close to 75 people who gathered on the Saturday before MLK Day to lend a helping hand to neighbors. Numbers for the event vary each year, says Schneider, due to the unpredictability of winter weather.

The day started at 9 a.m. with a brief opening ceremony and refreshments, said Schneider, and then participants chose their activities, either staying at the church to organize toiletries for nearby shelters, make bookmarks, or knit warm hats, or go off-site to venues such as a hospice home where minor repairs were needed.

No matter service project was chosen, the message heard by all who volunteered was the same. That is, “Everyone can make a difference,” said Schneider. “People need to know that even the smallest act of helping or of kindness matters.”

Joy was in the air

It wasn’t until 1994 when President Bill Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act, that turned MLK Day in to a national day of service.

And this year, especially, Babczak said there was more awareness of the urgency and importance of helping others. There was also something different in the air as Shillington residents gathered at Immanuel UCC.

“There was an overflowing feeling in the space that could only be described as joy. Joy of being in community with one another and of making a difference together,” she said.

Babczak credits Shillington’s “strong interfaith relationships” in fueling that collective witness that only love can drive out hate, as King himself preached.

“This day showed us what is possible when we celebrate our diversity and come together,” said Babczak.

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