Kidsserve-cedar run

Dear KidsServe family, I am terribly sorry about this very very delayed posting of this message. I mean, March is almost over as I am writing this..! Here's the recap of what we did for this past March KidsServe meeting.... We got together at the local senior living center. The primary focus was to simply spend some time and hopefully build a relationship with the residents who are practically our neighbors!(2 min drive from church) We brought along some craft supplies as gifts for the residents. We have made -Heart shape string art on a canvas -Scratch off eggs -Decorated wooden fan -Pens with flowers For privacy reasons, we are not able to post pictures with residents'faces, but let me tell you, the whole room was filled with busy hands, attentive care of the senior residents, and lots of laughter! The residents were all very warm, loving and many of them had great sense of humor. I personally had a fantastic time simply by seeing how the residents an...

As the shortest month of the year is quickly disappearing right in front of our eyes, I would like to recapture what we did a couple of weeks ago here at KidsServe. The theme of the month was "Giving without showing off" As someone who is in the position to teach children how to serve, it is my desire and prayer that the children will grow up serving with the right motives.  I hope the little skit I put together (please ask your kiddos) demonstrated how foolish it is to help someone out driven by the desire only to make him/herself look better, as the Bible says: Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your lef...

I don't know about you, but birthdays can be a touchy subject for me. Especially when it comes to my own birthday. This may stem from the fact that I have a couple of traumatic (?) memories associated with my birthdays, like that one time in college when only 1 of my close friends could make it to my birthday dinner, as the rest had to cancel in the last minute... Then again, at least I had a friend who I got to celebrate with. What if my birthday comes and no one even knows about it, and I simply cannot afford to celebrate on my own? Unfortunately, I think it is safe to assume that this "what if" scenario is a reality for so many people, even in our own region. According to a recent survey, on Ja nuary 28, 2016 there were 1,059 people who were homeless in the Fairfax-Falls Church community. Children under the age of 18 account for 32 percent (341 persons) who were homeless. We shared this statistics with the children and had to inform them that homelessness or food...

Greetings KidsServe family! I wanted to recap the wonderful evening we had at the Chantilly Crossings Senior care center a couple of weeks ago! Our mission was to bless the residents of this facility with beautiful Christmas music. We gathered in the movie room to practice and to make sure we had our elf hats on.. We also shared with the children this month's Bible verse: "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,  as faithful  stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10  NIV> Then we got to work with our jingle bells on! The pictures don't show it, but the residents all had big smile on their faces and they seemed genuinely amused and touched by the beautiful voices of our students (and the parents too!). What a great ending to our 2017 KidsServe meeting we had! Renee and I look forward to serving with you all again next month. Merry Christmas! Risa & Renee

For those who were at the Sunday service at church on 11/12, you must have noticed in the lobby the cookies, brownies, chocolate covered pretzel rods and "snowman soup" among other goodies. Well, this is a blog post on how the sweetness unfolded before our eyes.. Rewinding back to Tuesday, Nov 7, we had our monthly meeting and the topic of this month was natural disaster. With all the recent hurricanes that hit various parts of our country, we have sadly become accustomed to the human tragedies associated with the disasters. Unless we have directly been affected or know someone who have been, we are all in danger of leaving the memory behind and ceasing to care. Here at KidsServe, we want to teach our children to have a long lasting compassion, backed up by action. We watched a video created by Samaritan's Purse (christian organization).  We all learned together the level of disaster caused by the three major hurricanes that our nation experienced just this yea...

Welcome back to 2017-18 KidsServe! We are excited about this upcoming two semesters as we learn and grow together in Christ with your kiddos! Recently, we had our first meeting for this school year. There were many familiar faces and some new faces. It was such a delight to welcome all of you! To kick start our new year, we chose a topic that is very much relevant to service: appreciation. We discussed who we are thankful for, and how we can show our appreciation to them.  Many interesting and thoughtful answers there! We then pointed out how t he Bible instructs us to encourage one another often. Paul, in his multiple letters to the churches he was leading, always reminds his friends how thankful he is for them. Usually, following his words of thanks are words of encouragement to help build them up. Appreciation and giving go hand in hand. The Bible says,  “ Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. ”   1 Thessalonians...