New Song Volunteers Honor 9/11 Through Service

New Song Volunteers Honor 9/11 Through Service

The Rev. Paul Block and a group of volunteers from New Song Church in Henderson joined the city’s third annual Community Day of Service, cleaning up a section of busy St. Rose Parkway. The gathering honored first responders and the nearly 3,000 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by bringing neighbors together to serve.

For Block, New Song’s lead pastor, the remembrance was deeply personal. As reported by Devan Patel in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Block was a newly ordained pastor traveling by subway from the Bronx to Manhattan for an interfaith meeting when the attacks began. He encountered people covered in ash and later volunteered as a pastoral chaplain at ground zero.

Amid the devastation, Block witnessed volunteers and first responders from across the country working together. That solidarity—including the presence of responders from Nevada—left a lasting impression on him.

Twenty-five years later, that spirit of service brought several hundred people to Henderson’s Community Day of Service at Cornerstone Park. Supported by Henderson and Boulder City, JustServe, faith communities, charities and nonprofits, the event encompassed 37 service projects at 14 locations across the Las Vegas Valley.

For New Song’s volunteers, remembrance took the practical form of caring for a shared neighborhood roadway. Their participation offers a familiar expression of Lutheran vocation: responding to God’s grace through love and service to our neighbors. Even an ordinary task can become an opportunity to care for the community we share.

Read Devan Patel’s report on Henderson’s Community Day of Service in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The article is behind a paywall; a subscription may be required.