Simple Service Projects Kids Can Do!
I’m thrilled to have a new job as the K-5th grade Children’s Ministry Director at my church, and while the past month has most been spent learning the ropes and trying to keep my head above water, I have been able to start one new thing that I care deeply about – giving children the opportunity to serve! In churches, I often hear about the older kids serving – middle school and high school students are presented with all kinds of opportunities to serve. But let’s face it, no one is going to invite a third grader to come to Africa or reno a house! Instead, I decided to keep my message and my project simple – serving others is a way to show love to Jesus, and everyone is old enough to do it!
Here are the two service projects my kindergarten through fifth grade students participated in last Sunday – and you could even do them at home with your own young children!
If you are not familiar with it, Awana is a Bible club for kids that emphasizes Scripture memory. My kids participate in the Awana program at my church, but one of the neat things about Awana is that it has an international program. One of the projects we did on Sunday was to decorate simple paper Christmas ornaments that will be mailed to international Awana clubs to help them celebrate Christmas and to serve as gifts for their clubbers. On the website you can watch a video to get more information about Awana International, and get instructions to download and print ornaments. All you have to do is mail them to the listed (US) address and Awana will take care of the rest! We talked about what country our ornaments might go to, prayed that they would encourage the families who received them, and rocked out to some Christmas music in October! You’ll find instructions for the ornaments here.
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| A clubber in Kenya receives Christmas ornaments |
Philabundance
Philabundance is the biggest food bank in our area, but you don’t have to live close by to do the project we did! There are many ways to volunteer to help at Philabundance, for example I spent one Saturday scooping rice into five pound bags, but I was especially happy to find a way that kids could be involved! While many people come to a food bank to pick up food, Philabundance actually sends boxes of food to seniors in need. It is their goal to include a handmade card with each box of food, so the second project the kids and I worked on was making cards. The children wrote simple, encouraging messages and decorated their cards with stickers and stamps. I just put the cards in an envelope and mailed them to Philabundance. You can email the volunteer coordinator for more information about this project, or find out what your family could do to support your own local food bank.
So pick a way to serve! It doesn’t have to be something huge, but our children are watching us to see if what we say and what we do actually matches up. You might remember reading here that this is an area where my family still needs to grow, but I’m trying to take steps to make sure my own children and all the kids I work with know that they are not too young to make a difference.
