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
• 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.
