More than 40 chil­dren call Ran­cho 3m Chris­t­ian Orphan­age and School home. I spent the first week of July with the chil­dren at staff at Ran­cho 3m along with a group from my church. Located near Juarez, Mex­ico, most kids have come to the Ranch because of aban­don­ment, sex­ual abuse, or impris­oned par­ents. By gaz­ing at their faces you would never knox the deep pain and trauma that the chil­dren have endured at the hands of those who are sup­pose to love them most. Our week con­sisted of con­struc­tion projects around the prop­erty, eye exams and Bible school for the kids along with good old fash­ion play time thrown in. We did our best to love on these kids and help the staff take care of them better.

I assume that most peo­ple return from mis­sion or ser­vice trips with a sense of accom­plish­ment about all the good that they have done in the world. How­ever, for the sec­ond year in a row, I returned see­ing all that is wrong with the world and reded­i­cated myself to do all that I can to change it. The issues of orphaned chil­dren, sex­ual abuse and all other vari­ety of social ills are not con­fined to North­ern Mex­ico; they can be found under our noses here in Knoxville. I work for a non-profit ser­vice agency and I see many of these issues every day. I’d like to know what ways Knoxify.com read­ers are involved in mak­ing Knoxville a bet­ter place for every­one who lives here. What agen­cies are doing good work that we should all know about? What social issues need to be addressed?

If you need ideas on how to get involved in local com­mu­nity ser­vice check out Love Knoxville which exists to con­nect every­day Knoxvil­lians to ser­vice oppor­tu­ni­ties around town or the Com­pas­sion Coali­tion which con­nects local church con­gre­ga­tions with agen­cies that are attempt­ing to reduce suf­fer­ing and injus­tice in our com­mu­nity. Both of these agen­cies are faith-based, as are my con­vic­tions about ser­vice, but I think that all peo­ple have a respon­si­bil­ity to improve the com­mu­ni­ties that we live in for all peo­ple. So, how can you love Knoxville?

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