Servant hearts

Versieren / decorating
Originally uploaded by sraabs.

This past weekend we headed up to Eindhoven for a youth weekend on "Sharing, Serving and Giving". At this weekend we want the young people to learn about giving and serving, so we take part in 'Operation Shoebox'. This is an opportunity to put together shoeboxes filled with gifts for kids in orphanages and refugee camps around the world. When the boxes are presented, the kids also get a book telling about Jesus - the greatest gift.
At this weekend we challenged the young people to bring their own money to buy the gifts. We walked into town (cold, but beautifully sunny!) to buy the gifts for in the boxes. Interestingly, this was also the day that Sinter Klaas came to Eindhoven. Sinter Klaas is celebrated on December 6 and is when kids GET gifts. Our kids were out getting gifts to give away.
Back at the building we heard from Ivo about how important it is to make good choices and how others generosity helps so much. Ivo struggled with his own bad choices and could speak from experience about the prodigal son. It was great to have him there!
Then we all got down to business and made our shoeboxes as beautiful as they could be. We had seen in a video earlier in the day how excited the kids are who receive the boxes. We knew that we could add to that joy with what we were doing. It was neat to see that several of the young people had bought things in bulk that then could be shared in several of the boxes. Sharing in practice!
Scott brought a lesson after dinner about what sharing and serving is all about. Everyone got to practice a little bit - bringing someone some water, bringing some food to the table, or even washing feet! And then the challenge to keep serving one another in little ways every day.
A challenging movie (Pay it forward - sad ending, good challenge) finished the day before everyone went to sleep (or went home) after a busy day.
Sunday morning brought another good challenge from Remco. It is exciting to see how these young people are being challenged by young people (now grown up) who were challenged by young people. God teaches us to serve, to share and to keep giving - because HE has done and continues to do just that. What a wonderful God we have!