The Next Person

West Virginia is the home of the Summit Bachtel Reserve, a Boy Scout adventure center.  This year is was the home of the National Scout Jamboree.  At the event, the scouts volunteered to assembled flood buckets.  Russell Smart, a national program chairman for BSA was quoted in an article in United Methodist News:

“The last thing I tell them is, ‘Okay, when you put the lid on the bucket, the next person who picks up that bucket is not going to be having a good day,’ ” Smart said. “ ‘And you’re never going to know who is going to open that bucket. You’re not even going to know when it’s going to be opened. You’re not even going to know where it’s going to be opened, but the person that opens that bucket — the first thing they’re going to see is who made it happen. … So you won’t know them, but they’re going to know you. And they’re going to say a thank you, that you were there for them on the day they needed you.’ … That’s why we call it service and impact.”

We don't always get to see the impact of what we do, but we can imagine "the next person" - the one who is facing a home filled with flood damage, opening a flood bucket.  We can imagine "the next person" who has a meal because we have provided food, or a place to sleep because we have contributed to a shelter. We can imagine the abused family who has a moment of safety in a abused women's shelter, or the recovering addict who can stay clean another day, or the lonely widow who has a friend at church - "the next person."