‘Everyone has something to offer’
For one local nonprofit, serving others has a variety of manifestations. Whether it’s delivering food to families in need or shipping donations to a children’s home across the world, these volunteers are dedicated to daily giving.
Jenny and Jason Waltman of Grace Klein Construction founded the Hoover nonprofit Grace Klein Community in 2010. The focus of this organization is meeting the relational, spiritual, and financial needs of others.
Volunteers participate in several local ministries. The organization’s monthly food ministry reaches families across Birmingham. Families who are adopting children are given items by Grace Klein to sell in yard sales to raise money for their adoptions. Grace Klein also has a donation room at their construction office where they collect clothes, household items, books, furniture and much more.
Grace Klein also supports international missions. Mission trip supplies are boxed up and transported all over the world from the donation room. Volunteer and Development Coordinator Kristine Sizemore said that everything the mission does is based on one principle.
“We firmly believe everyone has something to offer,” said Sizemore.
Grace Klein is a partner organization with the Kwathu Children’s Home in Zambia and is currently hosting a missionary from the home. Natalie Spronk, is a 26-year-old South African missionary and worship leader currently serving at the home, which is a non-profit, community faith based home in Livingston, Zambia that provides shelter, education, psychosocial support and care for HIV infected and affected children. The home also aims to give life skills to vulnerable children in a healthy and safe environment.
Spronk said it is difficult for these children to be adopted because many of them have known relatives in the United States. The children regularly participate in workshops for carpentry, gardening, etc.
“This is the only real home they really know,” Spronk said. “For them it’s about losing that orphan mentality.”
Spronk is here in Hoover from Oct. 8 to Dec. 8. During her time in the United States, she is building relationships and raising funds for the completion of the Kwathu Home. Currently, Kwathu is renting a property, which makes it expensive to run the home. Kwathu has secured land, which will reduce the running cost of the project and allow more children to be cared for who are displaced.
The experience has left a mark on Spronk’s heart and she is happy to utilize her time in the United States to spread the story about the mission.
“It’s beautiful to be a part of these children’s lives,” Spronk said. “They are incredible.”
For more about the Kwathu Home, visit kwathuhome.wordpress.com. For more about Grace Klein Community, visit gracekleincommunity.com. To book Spronk as a speaker, email Kristine at Kristine@gracekleincommunity.com.