Service Parties

From the time my siblings and I were very young, service was an integral part of our lives. Mom and Dad wanted us all to grow up to have servant’s hearts filled with compassion for the needy and the lost. They encouraged us to find ways to serve others no matter how old or young we were.

 

Back when I was eight years old, we began planning a birthday party to celebrate. But a lady in our church with six young children had just lost her husband to cancer. The needs were great for a newly-single Mom with six children.

 

So we did something a little different for my party. We had a can/bottle drive. We passed out fliers in our neighborhood, and collected bags and bags of cans to recycle (here in Michigan, we get 10 cents per can returned.) The girls that came to my party all brought cans, too. During my birthday celebration, we piled everyone into different cars to drive out to the bottle return center. All the money we collected went to the family in our church.

 

For my tenth birthday, we had another service party. This time, instead of asking for gifts, we asked everyone to bring an item to take to the Crisis Pregnancy center our church supported in town.

 

All of us with our diapers, wipes, and other baby items at the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

The year I turned 11, I went on my first missions trip with Mom and Dad to the mountains of Mexico. After seeing the needs there, I knew what my next party would be. . .

 

. . . a Mexican-themed party where my friends brought items to send to the ministry in Mexico! We collected jewelry, toys, and baby items among other things to send to the soup-kitchen we had worked at.

I’m really thankful to have parents who instilled a love of service into my siblings and me. I have a feeling I know what my next party will be collecting. . . (go here to read more.)