{"id":29910,"date":"2023-10-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=29910"},"modified":"2023-10-04T03:30:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T03:30:53","slug":"camp-zama-community-members-recognized-for-volunteer-efforts-with-religious-support-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=29910","title":{"rendered":"Camp Zama community members recognized for volunteer efforts with Religious Support Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"editor-image single\">\n<figure class=\"photo cur-photo\">\n          <span class=\"centered-image\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"img-container\"><br \/>\n              <a class=\"rich-text-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/api.army.mil\/e2\/c\/images\/2023\/10\/03\/0e92448d\/original.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>              <\/a><br \/>\n                          <\/span><br \/>\n          <\/span><figcaption>\n                        <span class=\"image-caption\"><br \/>\n              <span class=\"caption-text\"><br \/>\n                More than 120 community members here were recognized for the combined 9,000-plus hours of volunteer service they provided to the Religious Support Office over the last year. The RSO thanked the nearly 150 volunteers and their family members by hosting an appreciation dinner for them Sept. 27 at the Camp Zama Community Club.<br \/>\n                <span class=\"caption-author\"> (Photo Credit: Noriko Kudo, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs)<\/span><br \/>\n              <\/span><br \/>\n              <a href=\"https:\/\/api.army.mil\/e2\/c\/images\/2023\/10\/03\/0e92448d\/original.jpg\" title=\"View original\" target=\"_blank\">VIEW ORIGINAL<\/a><br \/>\n            <\/span><br \/>\n          <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 More than 120 community members here were recognized for the combined 9,000-plus hours of volunteer service they provided to the Religious Support Office over the last year.<\/p>\n<p>The RSO thanked the nearly 150 volunteers and their family members by hosting an appreciation dinner for them Sept. 27 at the Camp Zama Community Club.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Army Garrison Japan Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Damon Saxton lauded the volunteers, saying they supported the RSO in several ways, including playing music at events, providing audiovisual support, teaching\u00a0youth classes, hosting adult and bilingual Bible study sessions, and supporting the annual Vacation Bible School program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no way that the RSO could take care of our congregation and do everything we do with just the staff we have,\u201d\u00a0Saxton said. \u201cWe need volunteers, and we want them to know how much we appreciate all they do for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saxton also praised what Col. Marcus Hunter, USAG Japan commander and speaker at the dinner, said about volunteerism and the philosophy known as the \u201cLaw of Love\u201d during his remarks: \u201cIt\u2019s not that you love the\u00a0people who do things for you. You love the people you do things for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want our communities to be connected,\u201d Saxton said. \u201cAs people do things for other people, it connects them, and there are so many positive things come out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-image single\">\n<figure class=\"photo cur-photo\">\n          <span class=\"centered-image\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"img-container\"><br \/>\n              <a class=\"rich-text-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/api.army.mil\/e2\/c\/images\/2023\/10\/03\/4e563eb0\/original.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Camp Zama community members recognized for volunteer efforts with Religious Support Office \" src=\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/size0-full-13.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n              <\/a><br \/>\n                          <\/span><br \/>\n          <\/span><figcaption>\n                        <span class=\"image-caption\"><br \/>\n              <span class=\"caption-text\"><br \/>\n                Attendees dine at an appreciate event Sept. 27 at the Camp Zama Community, during which several community members were recognized for the combined 9,000-plus hours of volunteer service they provided to the Religious Support Office over the last year.<br \/>\n                <span class=\"caption-author\"> (Photo Credit: Noriko Kudo, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs)<\/span><br \/>\n              <\/span><br \/>\n              <a href=\"https:\/\/api.army.mil\/e2\/c\/images\/2023\/10\/03\/4e563eb0\/original.jpg\" title=\"View original\" target=\"_blank\">VIEW ORIGINAL<\/a><br \/>\n            <\/span><br \/>\n          <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Patty Flick-Hill, who served as one of the directors for this summer\u2019s Vacation Bible School program and has supported both children\u2019s and women\u2019s ministry, said it was an honor for her and the other volunteers to be recognized for their work with the chapel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am happy to give my time, and it\u2019s a very gratifying thing to be a part of,\u201d Flick-Hill said. \u201cI want our community to flourish and want others to grow in their walk with God, and I think everything the RSO is doing here is positive and benefits the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Rojas, assigned to USAG Japan\u2019s Internal Review and Audit Compliance Office, regularly leads a church group for sixth through 12th graders, provides audiovisual support when needed, and even took time off from work to support the Vacation Bible School program.<\/p>\n<p>When Rojas arrived at Camp Zama, he learned the previous youth leader had recently left. Seeing an immediate need and not wanting that resource to be lost, he jumped at the chance to get involved.<\/p>\n<p>Being recognized at the dinner was nice, but Rojas said that is not the reason he or the other volunteers do what they do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for me [and for us] to serve others, contributing to something bigger than me and my family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 120 community members here were recognized for the combined 9,000-plus hours of volunteer service they provided to the Religious Support Office over the last year. The RSO thanked the nearly 150 volunteers and their family members by hosting an appreciation dinner for them Sept. 27 at the Camp Zama Community Club. (Photo Credit: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29912,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29915,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29910\/revisions\/29915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}