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We need some story ideas regarding service!
We’re doing the Service Ventures module but need some story ideas. We are looking for stories about boys or men who were faithful in serving in the little things, not just the world changing kinds of service (though that’s really great too). “Hacksaw Ridge” kind of service is awesome, but we want stories that help young men see that history changing service begins with seeing a sink full of dirty dishes and meeting the need.
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6 Replies
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You could go down the Bible story road. Jesus Washing the disciples feet… you could even do a footwashing . Joseph did end up changing the world, but it was his consistent setvanthood and faithfulness in everyday things that led to that in his life. You could have everyone consider all of the service they receive
The windows washed, the food shelves stocked, cars washed, garbage taken away. Consider life without service.
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Dale,
Thank you for the great ideas! I really love your closing question, “think of a world without service”, what a wretched world that would be.
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Daniel, not sure how much help this is but I’ll throw it out there, take it for what it’s worth.
I did a talk a few years ago that wasn’t specifically service-related, but it was about how God uses the small things in His bigger plan. I used dominoes for an object lesson. The first point was how one domino can trigger a chain reaction when there’s a well-designed layout of other dominos. By you taking a small step in trusting/serving God, it may actually trigger much bigger things. Along those same lines, a domino can actually topple over a succeeding domino that is 50% bigger than itself. A 2″ domino can knock over a 3″ domino which can knock over a 4.5″ domino, etc. (I actually made up some to demonstrate). In this model, in just 24 dominos you would be knocking over something taller than the tallest building in the U.S. Again, tying it into how our small, faithful actions can trigger something much bigger. Finally, I used the story of Edward Kimball (you can look it up on the Internet and decide if you trust the info :-). He was a Sunday school teacher who led Dwight Moody to Christ, and then tracing it out from there – he led a conference that Robert Wilder attended, which led to him starting the Student Volunteer Movement for Missions which had ties to Kiel Sun-chu who was one of the leaders that started an independent, self-sustaining Korean church which now has over 20 million members and sends more people overseas than any country except the U.S. Moody also helped other famous people to Christ, including Mordecai Ham, who eventually led Billy Graham to Christ.
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Mike,
Great stories and object lesson! I’ll see if this can be used.
Thank you so much!
-Daniel
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Daniel,
I hope this will be helpful in the way of service.For many years around the month of November the leaders and young boys would meet on a Saturday morning and go to the homes of people in our church that were unable to rake the leaves off their lawns. We usually had about six homes that we would take care of and the boys saw this as an opportunity to do something for others without anything in return They enjoyed the opportunity of helping others. Then in 2012, hurricane Sandy hit our area with fierce winds and destroyed many homes. We asked if anyone could take time and meet at the church to form teams. We had approximately 40 people that wanted to help out. The devastation was on the south shore of Long Island and it would take almost an hour to get there. So many people were affected by this horrendous storm. The homes were flooded and sheetrock had to be removed from the walls and carted away. The teams met many times to go there. I would knock on the doors of the homes to let them know we wanted to help in any way we could. Some of the owners broke down and cried because of all the damage and then there were cries of thankfulness that someone cared for them enough to help out. This is where I saw leadership and service. The young boys that were with us, worked as hard as they could to help. The youngest was around six years old. I can’t tell you what a blessing it was for me to see these young boys giving all they had to help these people. I received a letter from one woman that had seen these boys in action and what an amazing sight to see them helping her.
You never know when we might have another calamity but the one thing I do know is with prayer and the Lord leading us, we know we can do anything through Him who gives us strength. Those young boys were amazing and many got to see them in action. What a blessing it is to see what God can do when we unify to help others.
One of the other services was before Memorial Day, we would go to help place flags on the grave sites of veterans and place flags by the tombstones. After we were done I would share with them what an honor it was to serve our country and by placing the flags they had a better understanding of knowing these veterans had been a part of keeping our country safe and that many had died so that we could live.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends
Dave Cameron
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Dave,
What an inspirational story of service! We don’t have hurricanes over here in CA, but we certainly have opportunities to help the community. Thank you so much for this content; I am continually amazed at how God works in and through battalions around the country.
Thanks again,
-Daniel
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