Hello Mi Neighbour: Awarding service to other people

HELLO, MI neighbour! Congrats! Congrats! Congrats!

Congratulations are in order for the 223 outstanding Jamaicans (including a few of my friends) who received medals and badges of honour on National Heroes Day.

Some persons were awarded for community service, public service, gallantry, long and outstanding service, meritorious service, and so on. May all be rewarded with long and healthy lives. Of note was a particular recipient, who was awarded for long and faithful service to her community. Not only was she a generous contributor to the Police Youth Club in Portmore, St Catherine, but would often use her motor car to help the Bridgeport Police with community patrol.

Let's hear it for this awardee!

The fact that there is usually no age limit to awardees on these occasions, recognises that age is no deterrent to service. No one should consider himself/herself too young or too old to serve in one capacity or another. (Debatable? We'll talk). Service is about sowing and reaping.

As we serve others, we are actually sowing, and usually a harvest follows. Oftentimes the bumper crops of blessings which follow the continuous sowing of good seeds are overwhelming. "Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Not to worry though, the extras can be shared with others.

Awards are not normally given for what people receive, but for what they give or do (unselfishly) for the betterment of others. And sometimes this can be risky business risking one's own life to save another.

Here, Orlando Brown from Ackee Walk, St Andrew comes to mind. Against the advice not to venture into the raging flood water which was washing away a 12-year-old boy in his community on October 4, he braved this water and saved a life. At that moment, the focus was more on the well-being of the child rather than personal safety.

 

Purity of heart

 

Most of those persons who perform acts of kindness, gallantry and outstanding services, etc, for the individual, community and society are usually neighbours with purity of heart - no ulterior motives. They do not perform these acts because they hope to be recognised at King's House or anywhere else some day. No one hinted to our national heroes, who fought gallantly for our freedom, that one day Jamaica would have a public holiday in their honour.

A take away from this could be, "do all the best you can to all the people you can", because you never know how this will impact your future and those you'll leave behind.

So hear me, and hear me well, every one of us can receive an award for a deed well done, if not in this life, in the life to come (read all about it in the Good Book). But, as I said, we should never seek to help others just to satisfy our need for recognition. Instead, we should always seek to help others because they have a need. By this we will recognise that the satisfaction derived from acts of kindness far outweighs that received from recognition itself. At the same time, let's be generous in recognising others for their good deeds. Fear not!

 

Thanks for helping

 

1. Neighbour, St Catherine, for offering television to neighbour, St Catherine.

2. Neighbour, St Catherine, for offering a bed to neighbour, St Thomas.

3. Melvena Clarendon for offering adult pampers and a stove to neighbour.

4. Mr Clarke, St Catherine, for offering bed linen to a neighbour.

 

Opportunities to help:

 

-Neighbour, asking for dining table, mattress, TV.

- Samantha, St Mary, unemployed - suffering from a rare disease and unable to move around freely ... wants to sell phonecards to make few dollars.

-Neighbour, single father of two boys - ages two and seven asking for clothing for them. Also asking for a TV and assistance to start little business.

- Stacy, St Thomas, single mother of three needs a bed.

- Paulett, St Thomas, unemployed - asking for a sewing machine to help make a living.

- To help, please call Silton Townsend at 334-8165, 884-3866, 299-3412, deposit to acct # 351 044 276 NCB. (Bank routing #: JNCBJMKX) or send donations to Hello Neighbour c/o 53 Half Way Tree Road, Kingston 10 e-mail helloneighbour@yahoo.com.