Outreach helps students put concepts into action.
Sunday school is thought to be about Bible study, but when a Sunday school ignores its duty to reach out to the community, it loses potential students and misses a major point of spiritual work. Sunday school outreach can help students put the positive teachings of the Bible or other religious text into action.
Veterans
Arrange a day to perform a service for American Veterans of War. Veterans are a great example of commitment, loyalty and service, all concepts that are covered in Sunday school through the teachings of the Bible. You may arrange a presentation where veterans come to speak of their experiences. Afterwards, students can present a gift to each veteran, such as a handmade card and a gift certificate to a local restaurant or clothing store to show appreciation. Warn students to be sensitive to the speeches and experiences of each veteran and not to ask intrusive questions unless it seems acceptable.
Seniors
Seniors are often a forgotten facet of the population. As people get older, they may go to live in retirement communities or homes, unable to drive themselves places or have fully independent lives. Having younger people show them love and attention goes a long way, and your Sunday school students are the perfect people to do this. Your students can visit a senior center or retirement community for a day and read to the residents, play board games with them, talk with them and share experiences or even cook and eat a meal with them. As long as you arrange an activity schedule before arriving, it will hardly matter what your students decide to do, as long as it is genuine.
Donation Drives
Every city has shelters and other charitable organizations to help members of the community in need. Homeless shelters, battered women's shelters and children's hospitals are a few places that could use different donations. Shelters appreciate donations of canned or otherwise sealed foods, and your students can collect and deliver these goods. A children's hospital serving young patients may be able to use toy and game donations to occupy the time of children on bed rest. Call the organization or hospital ahead of time to make sure you collect and organize your donations properly in a way that they can be accepted.
Shelters
Instead of simply collecting donation items and dropping them off, you can also take your Sunday school students to work at a shelter for the day, or for a few hours over one, two or more days. Around the holidays, many shelters accept help preparing and serving food for those who have no home. Shelters may also accept volunteers who want to arrange group activities, clean up, visit and play with the children at the shelter or arrange and organize food donations, among other jobs. Chances are, if you call around to your local shelters, the staff there will be able to find temporary volunteer jobs for your students.
Tags: Sunday school, with them, your Sunday school, each veteran, into action, school students, Sunday school students