Home - Love Your Neighbor Ideas
Everyday ideas for loving your neighbor:
On-Going Ministry
Adopt a Mother: Locate a young mother in your community who is unchurched. Develop an ongoing relationship, provide child care, and connect her to other young mothers.
Bake a Welcome Gift: Give a homemade, baked gift to a new family in your neighborhood. Look for opportunities to invite them to your church.
Welcome Ministry: Prepare welcome bags for families moving into apartments or mobile home parks in your area.
Be a Friend: Contact a local home health care agency to learn the name of a homebound person whom you can visit on a regular basis. Follow through and develop a relationship with that person who needs you.
Birthday Party: Assemble a birthday party pack with a cake, simple gifts, etc. Take it and throw a party for a child or youth in a children's home or detention center.
Clothing Ministry Volunteer: Volunteer at a local clothing ministry. Find opportunities to help people select clothing, and use the time to talk with them about Jesus.
Emergency Care Bags: Assemble bags with sample-sized toiletry items and distribute them to local fire and police departments for use in times of need. Include scripture portions.
Food Ministry Volunteer: Volunteer to help in a food ministry on a regular basis.
Giveaway Garage Sale: Coordinate a garage sale with several families from your church. Set up the sale in a lower-income area and offer the items at minimal cost to families in need.
Hospital/Rehab Needs: Contact a local hospital or rehabilitation center to learn of appropriate ways to meet the needs of those who are physically challenged and to their families.
Nursing Home Current Events Group: Lead a weekly or monthly discussion group to help nursing home residents stay informed about current issues and events.
Prayerwalking: Walk around your community (or any area you feel compelled to pray for), and pray specifically for the needs there as you walk.
Provide Migrant Kits: Pack bags with essentials and drop off at migrant housing.
Refugee Resettlement: Sponsor a refugee family by helping them find a place to live, helping them get jobs, etc.
Shoe Ministry: Buy a new pair of shoes and take them to IHN or a local school. Ask the guidance counselor to give them to a student in need.
Literacy Ministry: Learn to teach English as a second language, or tutor adults who can't read, or tutor children having trouble with reading.
Start a Ministry Group: Start a group to minister to the needs of victims of a social issue facing your community. (What social needs face our community?)
Start a Welfare-to-work Ministry: Coaching (This may be something we will begin to do with IHN families.)
Traveling Clothes Closet: Collect clothes (especially children's) in very good condition, mark their sizes, and take them to a migrant camp for distribution.
Places to go or Activities that you can invite people to do with you
Canoeing
Rafting/Tubing
Hiking
Batsto Village
Wash. DC – Smithsonian, Holocaust, Capitol
Philadelphia Zoo
Lancaster – Shop and Eat
Camden or Baltimore Aquarium
Constitution Center – Liberty Bell – Independence Hall
Bike Ride
Roller Skating
Beach Party
Picnic
Golf
Mini Golf
Paintball
Bowling
Strawberry/Blueberry/Peach/Apple/Pumpkin picking
Frisbee Golf
Bunco
Great Adventure
Camping
Phillies or other sports game
Acts of Kindness Ideas
(some of these are more suitable as a group project)
Take quarters and some church info cards to a local laundromat. Consider offering your company to get to know the people you serve… it is boring to just wait for the clothes to dry!
Visit a local nursing home or senior apartment complex and offer a small gesture of kindness (homemade art from the kids, hand lotion, tissues, or flowers) and a listening ear. Bring the kids!
Show Appreciation for Community Helpers: Show fire fighters, police, postal workers, and other community helpers that you appreciate the work they do in serving others.
For a greatly expanded list of individual and group ideas as see:
http://www.servantevangelism.com/matrix/matrix.htm
For volunteer opportunities visit the
Volunteer Center of Burlington County
Most important! - Open your eyes to the needs that God brings across your path.
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