Good Things

If you ever get snow in your area, here’s a “cool” idea for youth pastors and/or youth to do. Grab your snow scoop and go to some houses in your neighborhood. Ask them if they would like to have their sidewalks or driveways cleared. Most people will refuse, thinking that they have to pay. Then, say, “Oh, there’s no charge.” This will blow their minds away. Make sure to clear it as if you where getting paid a lot. When I did this some people insisted on paying me.

Buy some $5 gift certificates (preferably with no expiration date) at your local fast food restaurant, attach it with a gospel tract or devotional, and hand them out when you come across a homeless individual. This reduces the chance of the money from being used for other purposes.

If your group eats out together, have everyone leave their area spotless. Then, overtip the waiter/waitress.

Next time you go out to eat, ask the waiter / waitress if there is anything that you can pray for them as you bless your food. This brings a variety of responses, but it is a true blessing for you. This will also work with a cashier at a fast food restaurant.

The next time your church bus/van/caravan has to pay a toll or parking fee, pay for the vehicle behind you. The recipients will be surprised to see teens giving money.

This is more of a long term project but one that the kids will remember forever. Periodically I have them write journal entiries, prayers, or any other written entry. I have a file of each kid where I store these entries. They really don’t know why they are writing them or what the purpose is.
After they graduate I mail all their entries to them. They have usually, of course, forgotten all about them and find it very interesting to read through them and see how they have grown in the past years. I have found they absolutely love it and it is definitely something they want to hold on to forever. Of course this is only good if you are planning to be at one church for a long while.

We do this at our youth retreats: Our youth pastor prints off little papers called Encouragement Cards with a space to write a little note and they have a Bible verse on the bottom about building each other up. Everyone writes words of encouragment to each other throughout the weekend. But if you are going to do this make sure you print a lot off, we always run out!

Use Wesley’s bleach-white to do a kindness project in a discount store parking lot. Do free white-wall cleaning and leave a note on the windshield.

Instead of toilet papering or forking lawns get the same excitement out of it by sneaking out late at night and doing something nice. I’ve done it two ways. First during a sleepover instead of the usual toilet paper raid I bought a big box of plastic forks, tape, and construction paper. We cut the paper into dozens of hearts and taped them to the handle of the forks. Then I had the girls write encouraging comments on each one of them. We all sneaked out that night and forked the Youth Pastors lawn. He liked it so much that he based the whole Sunday youth service on it! We also decided to put Hershey’s kisses on spoons wrapped in different colored plastic wrap tied with curly ribbon. Then we made a huge sign that looked like a giant spoon that said some nice things about the youth leader. We sneaked out and spooned her lawn. It was so…. much fun!!