Martha Zustiak - August 2024

Over the last fiscal year, we saw 11,688 volunteer shifts filled across the four campuses of Watered Gardens Ministries.  We define a volunteer shift as someone serving at least two hours. While a recent study on volunteerism suggested the value of a volunteer’s time to be worth $28/hour, even a more conservative $15/hour rate puts the value of our volunteers’ time this last year as the equivalent of $350,640 donated. What an amazing contribution!

Martha has been one of our faithful volunteers for over three years now, serving weekly at both the Outreach Center and Washington Family Hope Center, helping fulfill our vision of charity that is not only compassionate, but responsible and relational, too.

“I had been part of a lot of ‘feel-good’ charity over the years—doing some act of service for people, but having no relationship or connection with them. At Watered Gardens, I’ve learned that true charity can’t be distant or impersonal. It requires coming alongside someone and getting to know their story. That takes daily prayer and patience because it’s a journey, not an instant fix. That doesn’t always feel good—but it IS good.”

I’m so grateful for the generous donation of time volunteers like Martha give every day to serve those struggling in our community. And I’m thankful for financial partners like you, too. Your gift of __ helps provide both the volunteer recruiting/retention efforts of the ministry as well as the life-changing relational investment Martha talks about. Thank you.