…when you are kind to the poor, you honor God.
Proverbs 14:31 MSG
Community service is an important activity that should involve the entire family. How you serve will depend on the special needs in your area.
Coordinate volunteer opportunities with organizations already established in the community like the church, The Salvation Army, homeless shelters, or local food banks.
Ideas for Community Service:
- Be a worker for the local food bank.
- Help put together summer meals for kids who would usually have lunch supplied by their schools during the school year. Summer can be a hungry time for some.
- Take part in a coat drive for a homeless shelter.
- Provide toiletries and self-care items for a homeless shelter.
- Work at, or establish, a community garden.
- Provide handmade gifts for the local nursing home.
- Host or work in a neighborhood cleanup or home repair day.
- Mow lawns for elderly residents.
- Provide diapers, baby care supplies, clothing and personal care products at a support center or women’s shelter.
- Put together care boxes to ship to enlist service people. There are several organizations that often ask for donations of particular needs, like underwear, food goodies, and self-care products that our troops who may not have access to certain items while serving overseas.
- Take part in or coordinate Angel Tree activities during Christmas to provide gifts and food for needy families
What imaginative ways could you be a blessing to your community?
Don’t forget to be kind to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!
Hebrews 13:2 NLT
[Jesus said] “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.”
Matthew 25:41-45 NLT