Students can be completely detached by the poverty that plagues the city that surrounds them, as we all can sometimes. That’s why it is so important that we give them the opportunity to serve others locally. Missions is huge and great and I love seeing students lives changed from a trip across the ocean. That is what makes our local serve projects such big deal. Students need an outlet locally where they can express the passion that was sparked on the mission trip. Therefore, I’ve added some info about a serve project our high school ministry just did. I hope its something you can use or at least spark an idea about serving locally.
HSM Grocery Giveaway from HSM on Vimeo.
Last weekend our students served our local city with free grocery’s. We partnered with our church food drive program. It was a great project and very easy to get students excited about it. About two weeks before the event we blanketed the city with flyers targeting the poverty stricken areas right in our own backyard. It was very eye-opening for some of our students to see that poverty was closer than they had thought.
On the day of the event we had broken down our serving opportunity into 6 areas:
- Grab a small group of students and adult volunteers, send them out to pass out more flyers. They shouldn’t go out too far either. They can stay right around the general location.
- Students holding signs at the entrance directing cars where to go.
- Student Hosts (this group is all about going the extra mile).
- The line for the giveaway got very long so we dispersed students with trays of water into the lines just handing out water.
- We also had an area where kids who came with their parents could color or play simple games while waiting (duck duck goose, ninja, simon says, etc).
- Box/bag carriers – helping anyone who needed help carrying groceries.
- Students distributing the food.
- Since this is a one day event making sure there is an alternative place for help is important. Especially if you do the project at a location that doesn’t give away free food every week. Students handed out fliers about our church food pantry at the end letting them know that if further assistance was needed that is where you could go and get help.
- Students to pray for those who came to get food. At the end, students talked about the food pantry and the invitation for prayer was made. I was amazed at how many people our students prayed for. It was an awesome sight to see.
Serving locally is a big deal your youth ministry will be just as excited about it as you are. So get excited… hope this helps.
