hands and feet month 1: orphans

so i posted a few weeks ago about something new we're doing in our family: 
hands and feet.
it's a way we as a family are serving "the least of these." this month we are learning about orphans. 

we're talking about it at dinner, praying about it, and then doing something to serve them. 

we've had a few conversations around the dinner table regarding children who either don't have families or don't have families who can care for them. we've talked about God's Word and how He tells us to care for the orphans. we've talked about how it would be easy to see a big issue... like 143 million children without people who can care for them... and do nothing. -to choose inaction because it seems just too big to make a difference. but that we must act. and we've talked about our privilege and job as Christians to:

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
⁹ Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:8-9


this weekend we went shopping and put together overnight bags for children in foster care going into emergency placements. sometimes foster families get very little notice that a child is being placed with them (with elijah we had less than 24 hours. if he had come when the agency said they were bringing him, we would have had about 5 hours' notice), and our agency is always asking churches/individuals to put these bags together to help kids and the foster families with the transition. each boy did a bag for a child their age. we asked our agency for a list of items for the bags. they said they had all the toiletries they needed so we just focused on clothes and such.

each boy picked out:
a small duffel bag
a pair of pajamas
one outfit including a shirt, pants/shorts, and a jacket
underwear
socks
a stuffed animal
a small blanket 

we prayed for the children and families receiving these bags. the boys packed them up. and sometime this week we'll be dropping the bags off with our old agency.

i hesitate to tell y'all what we are doing because i don't want it to ever be like, "hey look over here. we're doing 'good' things. you should do 'good' things too." --i laugh out loud at the thought of this because that idea, to me, is hysterical. 

the hubs explained it to the boys like this: we are not good. God is good. we don't care for others to make ourselves look big or important or to be noticed. we don't do them for our own glory. we serve others because God loves each of us so much and deeply cares for us. we do it so that others may know about God. -who He is and what He has done for each of us through Jesus. we do it because God has called us to care for others and it is our joy to do so. 

i pray that this blog would be an encouragement to those who read it. that it would never be a measuring stick by which we compare ourselves. i pray that if you are looking for new ways to serve as God's hands and feet, our monthly/quarterly "hands and feet" activities might give you a new or different way to do that. 
may we each serve God as we are called, in whatever way that looks like. --using the gifts God has given each of us to reach people for His glory.