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Many of us are incredibly blessed. We have no worries about food and
shelter and are often surrounded by the luxuries of life (including the
Internet!). However, the majority of the world is not so fortunate and it
is our responsibility as Christians to care for those less fortunate than
ourselves.
But just how do we teach such ideas to young children?!?! Mikhyla and
Scarlett are still so young and it seems quite hard but I have given it some
thought and here are a few ideas I have had. I've tried to even think
beyond the ages of my own children and have come up with ideas for primary aged
children too (actually from a little experience as a Primary/Junior Sabbath
School teacher!).
Bible Stories About Serving Others
Practical Ideas
For Preschoolers:
- Practice the art of sharing with children their own age. Make
biscuits to share with friends at play, or make one paper chain of dolls
together in a group (see Danielle's Place Paper
Craft Projects (Page 2) or Enchanted Learning's Paper
Gingerbread People) and divide among children.
- Make gifts for others at times other than Mother's Day and Father's Day!
- At Christmas time have them wrap up a gift - it could even be a toy they
no longer play with - to place under a tree at a department store
(Department stores here in Australia have such trees with tags so people can
give gifts to children through registered charities - I hope this happens
elsewhere in the world!).
- (Enlisting parents help of course!) Have children bring along
non-perishable items of food to the class when discussing serving
others. Discuss where it is going and donate it to a local charity.
- To children to visit a home for the aged. While children may not
fully appreciate what it is like to be aged it will bring infinite joy to
others. Children could even take along cards or small gifts they have
made.
- A very easy thing to do which we have started in our home is to collect
stamps! Rather than throwing out the stamps on your mail begin
collecting them. Some charities such as Asian
Aid are able to resell these stamps in collections to stamp collectors
and raise funds for their cause.
-
Samaritan's Purse has a
program where called Operation
Christmas Child where you can put
together a shoebox of Christmas
presents for a child experiencing
poverty or disaster. My girls
really enjoyed being a part of this.
For Older Children (including the above ideas of course!):
- Ask children to do without luxuries (like a treat from Mum/Dad) or a portion
of their pocket money for a couple of weeks and collect this money each week
during the class to donate to a charity like Asian
Aid or ADRA/ADRA
Australia (again parent help should be enlisted to encourage
children!). Here in Australia, if money is donated to a specific
project that helps in the development of Third World countries, the
government will quadruple (no typo!) these monies. This means
that even a small amount of many collected can be used to make a real
difference. Ask the charity to write and tell you what they have used
the money for so children can receive some feedback on their gift giving.
- Sponsor a child and write to this child. Organisations such as Asian
Aid have sponsorships for as little as $15 (Australian) a month.
If your class is too small to be able to sponsor a child have them write
letters, draw pictures or make cards for the child/ren you (or someone else
in your church) sponsor.
- If someone in the church visits a Third World country, whether it be on
holiday or for a mission project, make sure you have them come in a talk to
your class.
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