One of the thing I appreciate about our church family is that they encourage our kids along with their families to find ways to serve others. Not only do they encourage, they plan dates to gather and work together on projects. Next week my older two children will be spending a week with over 100 youth doing service projects for our community. This Thursday my younger children and other families from our church will be participating in a Weed-a-Thon, where they will be weeding, trimming, pruning and doing other gardening tasks. The first recipient will be my mother-in-law! There are several other residences lined up for the summer. (I was tempted to add my house to the list but my children tell me I don’t qualify–lol.)
In order to prepare, all the kids designed flower pots and made bird feeders as gifts for the homes they will be serving this summer. They are so excited to work and help others! (Why yes, my daughter always paints while wearing a dress! 😉 )
This summer Adventures in Odyssey is encouraging kids to use their imagination to think up ways to impact their world. When I was younger I loved to listen to Adventures in Odyssey stories on the radio. AIO has recently expanded to books and devotionals—including The Imagination Station series, a fast-growing line of early chapter readers. You can check them out by downloading a FREE e-book of Imagination Station #1: Voyage with the Vikings!
Adventures in Odyssey encourages kids to write their OWN stories, as they join in ACTS: A Call to Serve! AIO is helping children use their imaginations to serve their family, community, and world this summer—maybe by sending a care package to a missionary or baking cookies for the local fire department. Check out www.whitsend.org/acts for details and a chance to win fabulous prizes, including a mission trip with a parent to Costa Rica! More important than prizes are the stories your child will tell about the creative ways they served others, and how they grew as a result. And what they come up with really might change the world! An ACTS “Summer of Service” kit, available for download here: A.C.T.S. Summer of Service Kit.
As a way of giving back to you, AIO is letting me give away The Imagination Station books 1-3 to one of you! My daughter has read almost all of these books and loves them! See the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Related Posts:
Serving Others This Summer (A.C.T.S)
My kids planted a flower garden at the nursing home with Nana. We have helped clean the church inside and outside.
We have sadly never done a family service project. I really want to start doing them but am not really sure where to start. Our church does not organize those kinds of events. Looking forward to doing some in the future.
What an awesome package
Our kids helped us serve after a tornado hit our community. They wrote letters and cards of encouragement that we included in food boxes that were distributed to families across our city.
My kids are still very young but we do a Backyard Bible Club at our house with the neighborhood kids each summer and have had the kids help us when our church has had work projects. Excited to seize opportunities as they get just a little bit older 🙂
We are so blessed to be able to do so many service activities with our church. A few current ones are helping distribute local food to local families that could use fresh produce for their families; making lunches for the homeless every month and then taking the lunches the next morning downtown and passing them out, along with clothing and toiletries and then spending time talking with the men and women and showing them that someone cares and wants to talk with them.
would love to win this for my boys 🙂
I have not done any service acts with my kids. It has been on my heart for a while now and since my aspie turned 8, I am thinking he may be able to do something helpful with the family.
We haven’t done official service yet. I have wanted too, but they were too young. We are getting older now and plan to as God allows. We do often help at church events by setting up or cleaning afterward without being asked to and try to find ways we can be a blessing such as that right now.
My boys do community service with the scouts.
Two years ago as a family we gave back to our community
for over two weeks. A tornado came through our town hard.
We gave up doing our home school book works for over
two weeks to go out and service. We helped to provide a fresh
meal for those in need. Helped get them some groceries, clothing and
other items needed. We spend over 12 hours a day at the church up the
road from us that was a relief center.
I think this time especially taught us all what it is like
to serve your community.
In face I just dropped one of my sons off at an elderly lady’s house
from church so he could clean up her yard from a storm this past weekend.
Who doesn’t paint in a dress? 😉 Serving is something I really want to work on with the kids. We don’t get involved enough in our community. I am hoping that will change.
We don’t serve as much as we should.
My kids & I did help others from our church clean up a handicapped mans yard. The kids had to help rake , weed , clean up trash & sticks while the adults did the mowing & other major yard work. All of the youth involved did a great job & were rewarded by the man with pizza from Pizza Hut & a ride in his fancy golf cart! The look on the man’s face when he saw how many kids showed up to help was worth all the hard work we did that day. He just couldn’t believe that kids would care or want to help.
Thanks for letting me enter the contest.
We served at a local summer camp for underprivileged kids. My little ones did some brush clean up with dad and my oldest daughter and I cleaned bathrooms and showers.
Our favorite way to serve is to participate in our annual keep the city clean day!
As a family we have gone to different homes and prayed for people. We have helped different indivudals with whatever need they have had like mow their lawn, bringing soup when they have felt sick, driving them to their eye appointment, etc.
I encourage my children to help the elderly people in our day-to-day lives with loading groceries and such. We also have an elderly lady in our neighborhood that we visit and help her in any way that we can. We also take food to the local food bank and deliver thank you cards to our local community helpers (police, ambulance, firefighters, etc). “Easy things,” but my children enjoy these little acts of service…hope this will encourage them to do more as they grow.
Sadly we have not served as much as we should. The last thing we’ve done was help gather supplies for a former church member who moved to be missionaries in Canada. My kids thought of it all on their own…love their big hearts!
i’m excited to start getting your newsletter and read your blog!
My boys are 7 and 3 and this blog post has me inspired to look for ways we might serve together as a family. One small act that we do from time to time is to pick up pine cones at our sweet elderly neighbor’s house. We enjoy it more than looking at it like an act of service though:)
I have 6 year-old twin boys and a 3 year-old son. One thing we love to do is Operation Christmas Child. We also made dinner for some sweet neighbors after the wife had surgery to remove her kidney. My hope is to inspire my children to serve in any way they can – whether in a small way or a big way!
We have done Operation Christmas Child the last few years and have purchased goats and chickens through Samaritan’s Purse. I would love for my family to do more though. My 2 oldest (4 & 7 )are old enough to understand and do more at this point. Sitting down and discussing ways to serve as a family, and doing it!, have been added to our summer bucket list 🙂
We have never done a family service project but would love to someday.
We’ve volunteered as a family at our church’s food pantry ministry. Usually just my teens go on their own though.
We have done any acts of kindness as a family yet. My boys are getting old enough, that I hope to do something as a family soon.
Our family worked with several other families, to put together some weekend snack bags for a local charity, for children to have food on the weekends, during the school year.
We bake cookies and make exam kits for college students.
Our family likes to serve with our church over Thanksgiving serving homeless men, women and children that are bussed in from all across the town.
Do projects for a homeless shelter around Thanksgiving. Volunteer at a pregnancy crisis center
My kids love helping with Operation Shoebox every November!
We have been donating new and used items to our local pregnancy center.
Thank you for this offer to win! Love A.I.O. and your blog.. what a blessing!
We cook and serve lunch at a rescue mission every Thursday. Sometimes the ends of the earth are around the corner…..
A few years ago our family went to Cherokee, NC to help with a VBS.
I haven’t gotten the kids into service projects, but they help me make meals for people and they are explained what we as parents do to serve.