Four former participants in SOOP, a Christian service program of Mennonite Mission Network, are featured on this week’s Shaping Families radio program, speaking about the benefits of volunteering at any age.

Clayton and Ruth Steiner of Dalton, Ohio, and Henry and Frieda Dick, Edmonton, Alberta all spent time together volunteering at the International Guest House in Washington, D.C. several years ago. They were featured in the 2006 Third Way Media documentary Embracing Aging: Families Facing Change and their interviews on volunteering have been re-edited for use on the Shaping Families program.

Each of these couples have found these years a time to explore giving in ways they couldn’t when they had full-time careers.

Ruth Steiner said, “There’s a whole other world out there that, when you’re busy working and teaching all the time, you don’t have time to explore. I see this as an adventure and a time to serve in ways that I wasn’t as free to do.”

The Steiners had volunteered earlier as a newly married couple and later as a family serving in Goshen, Ind., and Champaign, Ill.

Also, Shaping Families has added a new station, KDOM, 94.3 FM and 1580 AM, Windom, Minn., at 7:45 a.m. Sundays, sponsored by First Mennonite Church of Mountain Lake.

WDAC, 94.5 FM, Lancaster, Pa., has been airing Shaping Families since January 2010 at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays, sponsored by start-up grant funds. Beginning this month, the program will be sponsored by Philhaven and Lancaster Mennonite School. The program is aired on 15 other local radio stations. Shaping Families is produced by Third Way Media through Mennonite Mission Network.

Also featured at the website is a weekly blog by host Burton Buller, a weekly recipe from Shaping Families staff and contributors, a study guide useable by small groups and Sunday school classes and many additional resources on each week’s topic.  You can also listen to an entire archive of past programs on a variety of issues facing families today.