Perhaps the most recognizable public faces of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are its missionaries.
Usually younger than 25, always in teams of two, generally clad in black suits and often astride bicycles, more than 53,000 full-time missionaries are serving around the world at any given time. Young men serve two years, young women 18 months, paying their own way to spread the beliefs of LDS founder Joseph Smith and the words of the Bible and the Book of Mormon: God loves you; Jesus Christ is the savior of man; life has purpose; the Scriptures should guide believers; "all have the capacity to be more Christlike in our thoughts and actions"; and and the church is "how we come together to love God, obey His commandments, and serve one another -- not just on Sunday, but every day."
"In the book of Proverbs we're taught to 'train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it,'" says Jennifer Van Slooten, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Northwest Arkansas, referring to Proverbs 22:6. "When we engage our young people in serving, they learn early the benefits of giving love through service -- and hopefully it becomes a lifelong habit."
So even before their church missions, "our youth regularly participate in service projects through their weekly youth activities as well as personally through the LDS Church's youth program," says Van Slooten, "which encourages our children and youth to develop themselves through personal development and service."
As part of a "commitment to helping our community come together through service," the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched www.justserve.org, described as "a database that connects people with local organizations in need of service."As its Northwest Arkansas coordinator, Van Slooten is currently in the middle of a partnership among local LDS children and 911 Day. a nonprofit created in 2002 with an ongoing mission to "transform the anniversary of [Sept. 11, 2001] into a worldwide day of unity and doing good, and to encourage millions of people to remember and pay tribute each 9/11 through good deeds that help others and rekindle the extraordinary spirit of togetherness and compassion that arose in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy."
As part of a Sept. 11 service project, approximately 200 children from the Bentonville LDS congregation are making craft kits to donate to patients at Arkansas Children's Hospital, explains Van Slooten. And although that project isn't open to the public, she says there are more than 150 volunteer opportunities currently listed for the Northwest Arkansas area on JustServe.org.
"Since its initial launch in 2012, JustServe.org has connected hundreds of thousands of volunteers to projects from large-scale efforts to small opportunities that make a difference in our communities," Van Slooten says. "One of the best antidotes to the division and disharmony in our society today is Christlike service.
"When we serve together, we learn that our similarities are far greater than our differences and we learn to appreciate those differences. There has never been a better time to teach this to our young people."