Any parent knows the scary truth that their beloved children learn more from the parent’s actions than they do by their words. On Friday evening February 1, from 7-8:30 pm more than 30 SJA families walked the walk implementing the Gospel imperative to “…love one another, as I have loved you.” And who better to communicate that message to all attending than Julie Madden, Director of Peace and Justice Ministries at SJA, who after reminding the children that each of them are passionately loved by God, challenged them to see their feet as the method to reach out to others and that one of their feet was charity and their other foot, justice.

The 130+ family members including 70+ children ranging in age from 10 months to 23 years, attended SJA’s first Family Service Project in collaboration with Doing Good Together—a Minneapolis non-profit whose mission is “to inspire and help families volunteer.”*

SJA staff Cristine Patlan [ cpatlan@stjoan.com ] introduced the evening’s activities by showing a brief video titled The Power of One—a montage of individuals who have made a difference—Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi. Her message was clear—each of us can make a difference. Cristine then led a short discussion on why we should help others. And our own 5½ year old Tom Hobday summed up well the discussion when he confidently approached the microphone and shared his reason why we should help others stating, “Because God asks us to help others!”

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Phil Klees, aka Dr. Phil, is a licensed psychologist with clinical expertise with adolescents, adults and, couples and families. He has been nomadic in his career working in Anchorage, AK, Little Rock, AR (shook Bill Clinton’s hand—YES!!!) and Miami, FL. Three years ago he returned to his home state of Minnesota. Phil has been emotionally connected to SJA for 20+ years and an official member since returning to Minneapolis. Phil can be contacted at psklees@yahoo.com.

Cristine then described the three group activities a family could choose to get involved in, including [1] preparing blankets for poor families, [2] making greeting cards for three seriously ill children, and [3] assembling and decorating small bags of healthy snack food to personally deliver to the homeless. In each activity group a designated leader periodically proposed reflective questions to discuss during the projects, for example, What does it feel like to make something for someone you don’t know? What does it feel like to receive something from someone you don’t know?

To wrap up the evening, families gathered back in the church to share their reflections and give practical suggestions for future Family Service Project evenings.

The importance of SJA’s first Family Service Project can well be summed up in Matthew 19:13, in which the apostles tried to stop the children from going to Jesus, but Jesus said, "Let the children (and loving families) come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

*Doing Good Together [doinggoodtogether.org] believes that in a culture that so often appears to reward materialism and greed, volunteering together at a homeless shelter, crisis nursery, nature preserve or animal shelter is a powerful way to pass on the values of caring, compassion and social responsibility to children. Researchers have discovered that children whose parents model helping behaviors and provide opportunities to volunteer are more likely to adopt healthy social values and attitudes and to help others when they grow up.