Service Project

This post is really about a week late...

Two weekends ago, we took the kids out for a service project.

Listening to the lady at Hospice explain
what they do and how we are helping them.

Auntie Enid with Stella and Hannah

If you remember, we had thought about getting the kids to do a service project with Hospice West Auckland over the Easter weekend, but it didn't work out. We then found out that the Hospice needed baked goods so of course, the logical thing to do was to get kids together to do some baking. The younger kids, years 0-3 in school (aged 5-8) were going to help do grocery shopping while the other kids, years 4-6 in school (aged 9-11) would do the baking at Auntie Enid's.

Imparting the all-important
life-skill to Woody:
How to beat an egg

To be frank, I had reached the point of exhaustion and grumpiness where I simply wanted to get the service project out of the way. We had told the kids we would try to do something aside from Sunday gatherings at least once every term, so this was going to be the one thing we did this term. So I really didn't have too many expectations of how it would go. As long as it wasn't a completely disaster, we didn't get kicked out of the grocery store and Auntie Enid's kitchens weren't completely trashed, I would have considered the project a success.

Rebecca and Jesse working hard

And of course, the kids surprised me.

Not only were there no stares from strangers at Countdown, or food fights in the kitchens, the kids all did a great job working in teams. The baking got done in a lot less time than I expected, and no one got grumpy or cranky.

On the drive back from Auntie Enid's, we launched into the, "what did you learn from this?" conversation. Again, my only expectation was that as long as they didn't drift off down some rabbit hole as we were talking, I would be content.

Auntie Enid served up hot
chocolate milk for a
well-deserved break

And again, they surprised me.
They each had a spiel about loving and serving one another, which was what we were doing with the baking. Knowing my own tendency to take the social service rather than the gospel train in these conversations because it was easier, I tried to steer it back toward Jesus. To my surprise, Stella remembered what we talked about early in the year about the body of Christ and how we each had a part to play. Woodrow talked about team work, and Jesse talked about Jesus feeding the five-thousand.

Awesome chefs!
From left: Jesse, Woody, Rebecca, Auntie Enid,
Stella, Cassidy, Hannah

These kids... You just gotta love them.