God loves us.
We love God.
God loves others.
We love others.
By serving others,
we are the hands and feet of Jesus.
And, people see in us
how much God loves them.
Last week, 12 of our younger elementary children (plus two friends) memorized this motto, explored its meaning, and practiced being the hands and feet of Jesus in our community. During the four days of Camp Kairos, these 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders amazed us with their understanding and their actions.
Each day began with a review and discussion of our Circle of Serving, a “bulls-eye” graphic with God in the center, then Me, Family, Community, and World in expanding rings, that helps us understand our role as followers of Jesus. Through Bible study and a variety of experiences, we learned that we are each made in God’s image, with similarities, differences, gifts, interests, and interests that make us special, not to brag about, but to use to serve God by serving others. Planting flowers in pots we decorated and visiting with some amazing animals (Have you every petted a chinchilla or a hedgehog?), helped us understand our responsibility to enjoy and care for the natural world.
As we explored the Old Testament story of Joseph and his family and the New Testament story of Jesus’ parents “losing” him, we learned about God’s design for families and our roles. We made some new “grandparent/great-grandparent” friends at Mount Vernon Towers as we visited there and shared the books we made about our families and played a few rousing games of Bingo with them. Our new friends enjoyed it as much as we did and loved receiving the gift of the special pots of beautiful flowers.
Many of our Bible studies explored Jesus’ instructions about and example of caring for others. We visited with Sandy Springs police officers to hear how and why they spend their time caring for people in our community. When asked if he had ever shot anyone, one of the police officers gently responded, “That’s a question that makes me feel sad because I never want to hurt anyone. Instead, I like to talk about when I got to help someone.” He proceeded to share the story of doing a well-fare check on an elderly Sandy Springs resident, not getting an answer to repeated knocks on the door, ultimately finding a ladder and looking in several upstairs windows and finding the person collapsed on the floor. He summoned help, and the person has recovered and is back at home. (Not only was I somewhat grateful for his “diversion” of the original question, but it was a point well-made.)
As we learned about wants and needs and poverty and homelessness, we had the opportunity to join the Community Assistance Center (CAC) in their work helping people who are experiencing poverty have access to the basic needs of shelter, food, and clothing. After donating birthday party packs we had made, we sorted food in their storage unit and carried the crates of sorted food into the pantry and stocked the shelves. We met people, including children, who were receiving the services of the CAC because they are experiencing poverty, and we met people who are being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Taylor, Kairos’ summer intern, and I found ourselves tired at the end of the week, but our hearts and minds were filled with gratitude for the time and experiences with our campers as together we were able to JOIN God’s ongoing work in the world. Last week, many people in our community saw how much Jesus loves them through the words, smiles, laughter, and service of these 14 young followers of Jesus. And families were equipped to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To God be the glory!
With gratitude,
Jan
*Funding for the serving opportunities through Camp Kairos is provided through Kairos’ Equipping Fund.