OKC Relief Worker Care Packages

On Monday, May 20th, 2013  "a deadly tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburbs, destroying a school and devastating a community."  Within moments of hearing this sad news many of us felt the need to do something to help.  But, what?

 

The Sunday following the tornado was Service Project Sunday in our Children's Department.  Our lesson was about how we can witness with our attitudes. The point of the lesson was to realize that our attitudes can be displayed in our actions - through the things we do and don't do. The lesson opened with this illustration:

 

 "You just found out that the home of a boy in your school just burned down.  What do you do?"

1.  Be thankful it wasn't your home.

2.  Don't do anything. Insurance will cover their losses.

3. Ask your mom if you can collect groceries to donate to the family.  Ask your friends & neighbors to do the same.

4. With your parents' permission, organize a fundraiser for the family.

5.  You're just a kid, you can't do anything to help.

 

I'm happy to say that the kids responded, overwhelmingly, with #3 or #4.   One girl even responded, "#5 is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!".  I think it's safe to say these kids totally understand that God can use anyone no matter the age!

 

I then talked with the kids about the OKC tornado.  They had all heard about it, and were sad about the devastation. Oklahoma City is over 700 miles away from us, so it would have been easy to say we couldn't do anything, but that's not the attitude God wants from us.  He wants us to "look out for each other's interests and not just our own." (Philippians 2:4)

 

Earlier in the week, I contacted my sister-in-law who lives in the OKC area, to see if she had any ideas of what we could do to help from here.  She sent me the list below of the items the relief workers could use.

 

• Grab & Go Snacks
• Gatorade
• Water
• Tarps
• Work Gloves
• AA, D, C Batteries
• Empty Backpacks
• Plastic Totes
• Dust Masks
• Contractor Bags
• Sunscreen
• Bug Spray
• Duct Tape
• Brooms
• Shovels

 

I chose a few things from the list for our service project.  The kids had fun creating care packages for the relief workers.  Each child decorated a paper lunch bag.  I told them they could write or draw anything that would show our love and support for these hard workers.  I know that some of these bags will bring a smile to faces, and some may even bring tears.  We had a wide variety of greetings written on the bags.  One said "Yo Mon! From Colin".  Another said "God created all of us to help one of us".  I let them use their imaginations. After the bags were filled, we prayed over them as a group.  We pray that these bags will bring comfort & love to each person that receives one.

 

 

 

 

 

This was a simple, but powerful project. If you would like to do this project, and need a contact person in the OKC area, please contact me.  I would be happy to help.

Welcome Home!

"Jesus told the story of The Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32) to help people know how much God loves them and is eager to welcome them into His kingdom.

A young son wanted to be on his own.  Why not take his share of the inheritance now and go?  Reluctantly his father agreed, and the son did have fun for a while. But the fun ended when hard times came. Hungry and humiliated, he made his way home.  A loving, compassionate father saw him coming and ran to meet him before the young man had a chance to apologize. The father welcome him with total forgiveness, a big hug, clean clothes, and a great banquet. This is a picture of the joy in Heaven when a sinner comes back to God."*

 

Everyday, many men & women sacrifice the comforts of home & family to protect the freedom we have in this country.  In the midst of the dangers they face on a daily basis, they also miss their loved ones they left at home. When they come home it is time to celebrate!

 

 

This is my nephew Kevin and his wife Kristen after he returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

(Please pray for them and their 2 children.  Kevin was deployed again in November 2012)

 

This picture always brings tears of joy to my eyes.  I know how much they missed each other, and this day was one full of joy.  Just imagine how much love & joy God is filled with when one of His children comes home!

 

One way you can get your children involved in welcoming home our servicemen & servicewomen is to make cards to send to returning soldiers.  If you know some servicemen or servicewomen personally who are returning you can flood them with cards.  If you do not know anyone personally, you can contact your local military unit for names, or you can visit Yellow Ribbon America to find more information.

 

Let the children be creative.  Use blank note cards, have the kids write notes to the returning servicemen & servicewomen that simply say, "Thank You & Welcome Home!".  They can decorate the cards with patriotic stickers or drawings. Anything fun & encouraging.

 

Another option for this project is to send "Any Hero" cards to men & women who are currently deployed.  Operation Write Home is a great resource to use to reach out to those who are serving our country far from home.  Follow the link above for directions on making "Any Hero" cards. A card like this could really brighten the day of a man or woman who is missing home.  Include a Bible verse, or a note about how God loves them. 

 

*This lesson & project were taken from Inside Out & Upside Down on Main Street VBS curriculum by Standard Publishing .

 

 

A Person is a Person... No Matter How Small

We've all read or seen the classic Dr. Seuss story, "Horton Hears a Who".  Did you know that it is also a beautiful message about the value of life?  In doing some research for this project I discovered an idea to use the movie as the basis for a lesson.

 

I began this lesson by showing the classic "Horton Hears a Who" movie.  It is 26 minutes long.  We focused on the line in the movie that says "A person is a person, no matter how small".  God made each and everyone one of us as a unique and amazing creation.  We can't deny his handiwork!  We talked about how we all start as a tiny dot inside our mommy's tummy.  (I had planned to show the kids slides of the development of a baby in utero, but I had technical difficulties.) 

I explained to the children that sometimes moms don't think they can take care of their babies, or don't want to.  Life Centers is there to offer the support & counseling a mom needs to face the challenges and difficult decisions surrounding an unplanned pregnancy.  Life Centers shows them the value of the life growing inside them, and shows them the value of their own life in the eyes of Jesus.

As a church we support our local Life Center . We believe in the mission of this ministry and try to find different ways throughout the year to support them.  This project is a great way for kids to get involved in supporting Life Centers. 

At Life Centers they provide new moms with diapers, clothes, toys, etc.  They like to have something nicer than a plastic grocery bag for the women to carry the items home in.  We decorated large gift bags to donate to Life Centers.

 

I let them use their imagination in decorating.  They wrote verses, or "A Person is a Person...", whatever they wanted.  Anything they could think of to bring a smile to a troubled mom's face.

 

 

They did a great job!  Life Centers was so happy to receive our bags, and we plan to do this project again in the near future.

 

If you would like to locate a Life Center (or related organization) in your area visit Option Line.  This is a resource recommended by Focus on the Family.

 

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

 your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Psalm 139:14

 

 

A Warm Hug

According to Wikipedia "A hug is a near universal form of physical intimacy. A hug can be given as an indication of support, comfort, and consolation, particularly where words are insufficient."  Many times we aren't able to reach out directly to those in our world who need a hug most.  But, through this project we found a way to give a hug to someone we don't even know, and probably will never see.  Our hugs came in the form of fleece scarves for children. 

This is a very simple and easy project to do with elementary age children.  You will need 1 yard of fabric for every 6 scarves you want to make. (Use your 50% off JoAnn's coupons!)  Cut each yard of fabric into 6" strips.  You will also need a pair of scissors for every two kids.  I had the kids work in pairs - one cutting, one tying.  This project took us approximately 20 minutes to complete.

 

 

I put a piece of masking tape, at about 4 inches up on the fabric to show how deep the kids would need to cut.  Then, I showed them how to cut the ends into 1" strips (approximately).

 

 

 

After they cut the strips, they tied 2 strips together in a knot all the way across the width of both ends of the scarf.  If you end up with 3 at the end, just tie them all together.

 

 

Somehow, I missed getting a picture of a completed scarf.  I'm sure you get the idea.

 

After the scarves were complete we donated them to an inner city mission.  They were very appreciative of our donation!

 

I paired this project with a lesson about the Good Samaritan.  This parable is a good example of putting others first, and taking the time to care for others needs.  That's a lesson that will never get old!