SPARK: Building Community Through Service

GUEST WRITER: AMBER HARRIS

When I was growing up, my family made involvement in church youth group a priority. Each year, I attended short-term service trips during summer breaks with the youth group. I lived into the missional fervor and returned from one trip already looking forward to the next. We went to different cities and towns within my home state of Virginia. On these trips, we partnered with community organizations to support neighbors experiencing homelessness, helped with home repair, and provided children’s day camp programs. My peers and I returned with positive momentum to continue connecting and serving in our hometown, and we often did, at least for a while. 

During those trips, we completed hands-on projects while serving alongside our neighbors. As we worked, we got to know one another. I realized how much we shared in common. Those experiences shaped me. Over the years, I found joy and purpose in offering my gifts and heart in service to churches, community organizations, and marginalized communities. Those youth group experiences then inspired me to start SPARK (Sharing Peace And Rekindling Kindness). In our lives, we all experience highs and lows. God wants all of us to sojourn, grieve, and celebrate together. We must embrace a spirit of kindness, relationships, and community toward one another.

Sharing Peace and Rekindling Kindness

I founded SPARK in the chaos of 2020. I believed that if we could serve with one another, we would open our hearts, build relationships, find common ground, and create community during a difficult time. SPARK designs and manages service-learning experiences in which groups of 10–150 people come together to nurture community by serving their neighbors’ needs. 

SPARK designs group projects where doing and being matter. Working with our hands as we build, dig, plant, paint, and maybe even craft with children or older neighbors who need friendship fans the flame of neighbors and community spirit. Relationships form with our neighbors as we find peace by working to feed hungry bellies, quench thirst, and serve those in need of compassion. We rekindle kindness in the community by listening to one another’s stories and empowering the voices of marginalized neighbors. 

SPARK weaves education into every aspect of service. This helps folks identify where their lives can contribute to improving conditions in the community. When someone learns about food insecurity, they can start thinking about their role in reducing the number of food deserts. They can take action and make a difference. The SPARK team educates an intergenerational community of volunteers about the why and purpose behind service and the compassion needed to serve your neighbor, making it an ongoing, active practice. Peace comes in many ways. This creative, peaceful work empowers everyone.  

What Do You Think About When You Hear the Word “Spark”?

Before each service-learning project, I ask everyone a question: What do you think about when you hear the word “spark”? 

People respond with: light, fireworks, an idea, a lit candle on a cake, etc. I remind everyone that we all have light, or a spark, within us. Often, the world dims our light, and we sometimes feel like it’s gone completely. God created us in an incredible image of goodness, resilience, and belovedness. I hope to empower folks to reflect on their own light, while also encouraging them to fan each other’s flames. With encouragement and oxygen, a spark grows into a powerful light that cannot be hidden. For such a time as this, we need light. We need to lean into the unknown of building relationships so that our neighbors, in the midst of doing their own hard things, can find light in moments of peace and in community.

Get Involved With SPARK

When you reach out, be sure to mention that you heard about us through this blog post at Illustrated Ministry, and we can discuss a $500 credit if you work to create a service experience with Spark.

Amber Harris

Guest Contributor

Amber grew up in Floyd, VA. She earned a Philosophy & Religion degree from Bridgewater College in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. She earned her M.Div. from Wake Forest University School of Divinity with Clinical Pastoral Education chaplaincy training under her belt in 2011. Along with chaplaincy, she has served in churches as a Minister to Youth and Young Adults and interim pastor and has spent time in camping as an Engagement Director at YMCA Camp Hanes. She is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. Amber is grateful for the opportunity to live out her calling to ministry and to love community through SPARK. Amber and her husband, Preston live in Winston-Salem, NC with their two sons, Dax and Branch, and daughter, Violet and two rescue pups, Gavin and Stormi.