Last night at youth group (yes, I went to youth group on a sick day) we met with our small groups to discuss social justice. We are preparing the kids to do the 30 hr. famine and to go on a mission trip to South Dakota this summer. Anyway, I work the the Jr. High girls and I was really impressed by the discussion we had. One of the girls commented that she felt helpless because she didn’t have any money to buy food or clothes to donate or to sponsor a child. From there they started discussing ways that they could help that didn’t involve money. It was amazing the ideas that they had. This is what they came up with:

Playing “Bigger and Better” with food. Basically, you start with one item, like a piece of bread, and you knock on the first door and say “I have a piece of bread, can you give me food that is bigger or better?” and the person will give you a can of corn or something. Then you take that to the next house and so on and so on. They thought it would be a fun way to collect food for a food pantry.

They want to help clean up in a poor area of town. They want to go to an area, clean up all the trash, wash off graffitti, plant flowers, etc. with the help of the people in the neighborhood.

They are going to start donating some of their own clothes. Everytime they buy something new they are going to get rid of something they haven’t worn in a while.

These are just a few of the ideas they came up with. It was fun to see how excited they became when they realized there were ways they would be able to help.

If anyone has any other ideas that 6th - 8th grade girls could do, let me know.