One year ago last week we began a partnership that would change and impact many people, many families, a school, a church and possibly an entire community. The very first event or service project we at Ridge Church, did with Piney Grove Elementary was give away 650 book bags filled with school supplies at the schools open house in 2011. This was an awesome time being able to provide for the needs of so many families as well as give us at Ridge Church the opportunity to begin relationships with parents, students, teachers, and school staff.
Leading up to this years open house I began thinking of other ways we may be able to better leverage our resources, people, time, and influence at Piney Grove. I just wasn’t sure giving away 650 book bags was the answer for this year even though it was a huge success last year. I thought about the Christmas Store (clik on the link to read more about what we did at Christmas) project where 14 families at Piney Grove had Christmas provided for them. One of our main goals with the Christmas Store was to empower or enable the parents to be the heroes in their own homes and not Ridge Church. This lead me to begin thinking maybe we could empower or enable the teachers to be the heroes in their classrooms. So this year we gave all school supplies that people at Ridge had donated, to the school so they could then allow the teachers to give them to the children in their class that most needed them. That’s exactly what happened too.
By helping the teachers give and serve to these children that are in most need, maybe just maybe we helped begin a relationship between teacher and student that will benefit these students for a year or maybe a life time. Hopefully these students will be able to trust and respect their teachers a little more. Hopefully these students will enjoy coming to school because they love their teachers. Hopefully these classrooms will be a safe place for these children. Hopefully these teachers will have more influence and opportunity to teach an unguarded child. Hopefully this can be the year that will begin a child’s journey to success in this life.
The simple act of serving a person and giving to meet their need, sometimes goes way beyond that moment. Sometimes it can be the one thing that changes the direction of a life. We never know what impact our simple acts of kindness can do for another.
The Rousehouse 