Lemonade and a Smile

From Sean and Julie Smith:


We have been talking to our oldest daughter Brighton about serving others since before the Summer of Serve started, and I've been challenging her to think of ways that she can serve others even as a kid. Well, she came up with an idea while talking to Julie about a week and a half ago, and they (along with our other two little girls) put it into action this past Monday.

Julie, Brighton, Berkeley and Boston all headed over to Second Mile (a ministry connected to UBC that serves the poor and needy in the community) Monday morning and set up a lemonade stand on the front porch. They gave away free lemonade, water, popsicles and cookies all morning long to everyone that came to Second Mile.

It may seem like a small thing, but it is pretty awesome to see kids "get it" that serving others doesn't have to be complicated.  It can be just a smile, a cup of cold lemonade and a reminder that God loves you, even when life is hard.

go7 Saturday

Here's a report from Sean Smith from Saturday's volunteer time with 7 Hills:


Thank you all so much for coming and helping this past Saturday morning with the 7 Hills "go7" project in Prairie Grove. Jen Boyle, the program director, shared some information about this past Saturday.

Prairie Grove highlights:

236 people served in just over 1 hour

$10K in product - gathered from shareholders excess, United Way Gift in Kind, food drives for 7hills, volunteer vendor donation

30+ volunteers served

We asked the community "What is your greatest need?"

Answer:  food, personal care items, "everything," also a lot of requests for detergent

Jen also passed along her thanks and said that everyone from Grace was "fabulous" and that she'd love to serve with any of you again in the future.  

Thanks for serving!

It's the Summer of Serve at Grace Church: a time to get off the couch and go serve the community and people around us. We look forward to sharing your stories of service here on the blog.