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Community Service Projects for Teens {Episode 226}
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In this episode, Bonnie & Audrey discuss community service projects for teenagers. They share WHY teens should do a long term community service project, WHEN is the best timing for these projects, HOW to find opportunities, and their teens and their own examples of projects. This is a must listen episode for anyone with kids! (Hint: listen long before they are teenagers!)
Mentioned in this episode:
About Outnumbered the Podcast:
Two moms, parenting a combined total of 19 kids and finding joy in the chaos.
Join Audrey and Bonnie as they share real parenting tips for real people through humor, advice and compassion.
Whether it's tackling how to teach kids to work or discussing where to turn when you're all out of patience,
these two experienced moms are here to offer authentic tips for raising children joyfully.
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Transcript
Introduction: Meet the Hosts
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumbered the Podcast. I'm Audrey. And I'm Bonnie. We are experienced moms to a combined total of 19 children. In our weekly episodes, we explore relatable topics using our perspectives of humor and chaos. Tune in for advice and encouragement to gain more joy in your parenting journey.
Humor in Parenting
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey everybody, we're happy to have you back on this episode and we're talking about something. We're going to spend the whole episode talking about something that we've kind of referred to and talked around in the past, but we're going to dive deep in on it today so that you can know more about it if you should like to do it with your family too. So we're going to be talking about, um, teen service projects.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yes. Yes. And I can already tell that Audrey's going to be the expert on this, so I'm going to learn lots from her as well because her kids are older and- Well, it's not- Yeah, I've had more teens in years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More experience. But on the opposite spectrum from teens, I have a little humor segment for you guys from my toddler because they're the funniest. Teens and toddlers are just
00:01:12
Speaker
They're the best, but for different ways. My toddler, he's almost four and he's adorable. He's got this big round face, super chubby cheeks, and just has this really raspy voice, so everything that comes out of his mouth is just adorable, and I need to be writing it down more, but my favorite thing was the other day. My 10-year-old was frustrated about something and was kind of whining and moping about it, and Dean, my almost four-year-old, looks at him and goes, just cry about it. Why don't you?
00:01:42
Speaker
I was like, well, that's kind of rude, but we all just laughed. Why don't you cry about it? My 10-year-old didn't like the sass coming from his baby brother either. Yeah. Oh, funny.
Why Focus on Teen Community Service?
00:01:58
Speaker
OK, so we're going to talk more today about community service projects for teenagers. And we have talked about, you know, like our families both kind of have just a general service mentality. But this is something that we have our teenagers do a long term, a big project that will
00:02:20
Speaker
Kind of set the foundation for them going forward in the rest of their life and we'll we'll get into all the differences We'll talk about why we do it when we do it in their lives how to find opportunities other considerations to take in and then we're going to share our personal and and our own family experiences that We have had ourselves and our teenagers do so it's gonna be a fun episode today
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You know, so when we think of service, at least me personally, I very often think of kind of shorter term projects, right? Like we're going to go to a homeless shelter and feed them dinner, which is something that we like to do. Um, we're going to go pick up trash on the road or we're going to, you know, pick up dog poop at the park or something to help make your community or someone else's life a little bit better. But what we're going to be talking about today is more the longer term things where we kind of adopt, uh, you know, a group of people or an organization to help long-term where you can develop some real
00:03:12
Speaker
really amazing relationships and it can really teach kids the long-term benefits of serving others. Yes. Yeah. This is like their big project. All right. Why would we do this? I mentioned at the beginning of the episode that both of our families have a culture of service. If you are going to walk up to a random teenager and
00:03:39
Speaker
broach the topic of a long-term community service project, like we're going to be talking about in this episode. You're probably going to get a thumbs down, swear word. No. Are you crazy? Yeah. What are you thinking? This teen community service project or this big project doesn't start when they're teenagers.
00:04:01
Speaker
It starts back when they're little kids and they're out there helping you with the yard work or you go to a religious event and everybody pitches in and does something and nobody gets paid and nobody grabs a butt, spending their time. It's just something that you do and you start with the culture of service from the beginning and then you don't get like
00:04:24
Speaker
you don't slap the teen upside the head with it out of the blue. It's been a part of life. This is just another step for them. Yeah. I know we've talked about this before, but teenagers are in this unique phase of life where they're figuring out who they are as adults, so there is a lot of selfishness going on. That's a totally normal thing for them to explore, figure out what they want and what they're going to do. Like you say, it's a very
00:04:48
Speaker
Not great time to say well now it's time for you to serve somebody else unless they've been raised with this With this mentality. We're not saying you can't do that if you haven't done that and you have a 16 year old You can absolutely try to foster it at this point It's just a little bit more difficult if they haven't been having opportunities since they were young
00:05:04
Speaker
All right, so when my husband and I came up with this plan, this was our
Building Character Through Service
00:05:09
Speaker
why. We wanted our teens to focus on others. Like you said, definitely when they're very young, toddlers, little kids, they're so narcissistic. That's how little kids are. And it's so cute. But when you get a 16-year-old or older that's narcissistic, it doesn't. Not cute.
00:05:26
Speaker
Not so cute. Not so cute. So we wanted them this to be like their big focus on others. There would be no income involved. Absolutely no payment for what they were doing. We wanted them to have a
00:05:42
Speaker
Project where it was giving giving of themselves giving of their service giving of their time giving of their effort giving of their their resources something they had that the other person couldn't have we wanted to build thankfulness at the beginning of gratitude at the beginning of their of their adult life and so getting
00:06:04
Speaker
Oftentimes these projects are with those who are less fortunate or less able. And that really, really is a good way to start a gratitude practice with your teen. And then be a part of a greater good, like something that is bigger than yourself. Because a lot of these opportunities that we're going to share about how to find them later, but a lot of these are connected to your religion or your family.
00:06:25
Speaker
And then it is honestly one of the best ways it is such a good foundation for their adult life. Like they launched into their adult life on this community service project and those were some of our whys.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yes, exactly. And I keep thinking back to your 20-year vision, Audrey, that we've talked about so many times. It's like, what do you want your family to look like in 20 years? Do you want your grown sons to be the ones that elbow their way to the front of the line to fill up their plate? Do you want them to be the one that are hanging out on the couch looking at their phone while there's cleanup to be done? No, you want them
00:06:59
Speaker
To be the ones that are aware of their surroundings and look out for those that are less fortunate or you know The pregnant or the little ones right you want them to be? Service-minded and that starts when they're young and then built can build into an amazing service project as they get older
00:07:15
Speaker
A few more whys for us than our family is, I think it's a really great way for kids to develop integrity. And as you know, integrity is where our beliefs meet the road, right? Where we're living out what we actually believe. And a kid or an adult without integrity is just kind of useless. Honestly, you never know what to expect from them. Are they gonna live according to what they believe today or not, right? We don't want that for our kids. We want them to have very firm values and to always show up in a way that honors those values.
00:07:43
Speaker
I think it keeps them humble. Kids that are involved in service are very, very humble. Like you say, they're grateful, humble. And I think it gives them a broader view of the world. It can be very easy, especially for kids that never move anywhere. They live in the same city their whole life or the same state. It can be very easy to think that the entire world looks just like your community and nothing could be further from the truth, right? So, barring traveling all over the world, which I also recommend, that's pretty amazing to give your kids some eye-opening experiences.
00:08:11
Speaker
Serving is the next best thing and you can go just the town over or maybe the same town just a different neighborhood and find people that are living completely different circumstances from you and that could use some service, right? It just helps keep them aware of how fortunate they are and how much help other people need. Yes, those are such good whys. Get them started. Get them started offline.
00:08:37
Speaker
get them started off right in life.
Logistics of Teen Volunteering
00:08:39
Speaker
Okay, we're going to move into the when. When does this work for teens to do this? We've had four that have done their service project now. It's in their upper teens. If they are
00:08:52
Speaker
They are thinking about what comes next in life for them. Lots of times in their younger teens they don't know. A key component here for like mom is that they're able to drive because otherwise you're going to be very involved in their community service project unless they can walk there. And that can be, since we've mentioned it's a long-term thing, that is
00:09:14
Speaker
That's going to require more of you. It's going to be not their project, but like your combined project if you have to drive them there. And then also they can be of a better service in some situations if they can't drive, if they have their driver's license.
00:09:27
Speaker
Um, usually before their high school years end because after their high school years and there's kind of that push to go into college or to be making money to go into college. Um, and then also another aspect of the when is we required our kids to have a community, a service project that required a significant amount of their day. Um, not just like an hour or less, it, it had to be a big project.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So for many years, like when I was growing up, most of the young men in my community and our church community especially were Boy Scouts. And so if you do the entire Boy Scout program at the end, you become an Eagle Scout. And in order to become an Eagle Scout, you have to do this big Eagle Scout project. So that was kind of what I was raised with and expected at least the boys in our family to do that. And the girls had another equivalent that was created by our church program.
00:10:19
Speaker
But now we don't do Boy Scouts anymore. As an organization, I could still put my kids in it, but we don't. And so I do find myself like, oh gosh, this is going to have to be on us a little bit more. I mean, even though the kids came up with their own project, we just waited till they got there and let them figure it out. So I'm still learning from you, Audrey, and from others and trying to figure out exactly what I want my kids.
00:10:39
Speaker
to look into to get them prepped for a life full of service. But yes, I definitely agree they should be capable of seeking out these opportunities and responsible enough to show up for them regularly, right? So even if a 14-year-old had a way to get there, they might not be mature enough to realize, hey, I committed to this thing. I'm showing up every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday for three hours or however long.
00:10:59
Speaker
It requires, right? I also believe it should be a time when they are busy, and in high school in those young adult years, they are busy, and their time is a sacrifice. They can finally work for money, which means that their time is valuable. It's not like they're just sitting around at home like a 10-year-old who's just doing school and playing. It's like either go to work or serve for free, and I feel like that is a really, really
00:11:22
Speaker
meaningful aspect of it because it hurts a little bit, right? Like my time today is a lot more valuable than it was 20 years ago because I have a lot more on my plate. And so that makes it become a greater sacrifice. That is true. It has to require something of them. Like their time could and very easily, honorably be used for something else and they're using it for this instead. Okay. So you guys are probably wondering, well, how do you find one of these service opportunities for your kids?
00:11:51
Speaker
So volunteerism is a huge one. You can volunteer at a library, you can volunteer at a museum, you can volunteer at a hospital, a nursing home. There's so many places to volunteer. And that's kind of like a socially acceptable one. We're going to talk about some other considerations in a little bit. But volunteerism is a very good way to find a
00:12:14
Speaker
a service project for a teen.
Finding Service Opportunities
00:12:16
Speaker
Ask around. If you just start asking and listening for something you're going to hear, oh, you know, so and so just, you know, had this event in their life and they could really use some help. And I want to say that when you start and your teen starts looking for a service project, opportunities are going to present themselves. That is what happened for all four of our teens who have done their service project. That is what happened. The opportunity just
00:12:44
Speaker
quote unquote fell into their lap. And by that we kind of felt like, you know what, God knows what we're trying to build into these kids and he's helping us out by sending this opportunity, this experience our kids way. And we're not going to let that just pass. Even if it wasn't like an opportunity, maybe that our kids had been looking for. It was the one that showed up when they were at the right age to do their project.
00:13:10
Speaker
Yes, I love that. They just kind of fall into your lap. Oh, look at this. That's beautiful. Yes, they can find or create some sort of a movement, right? Like maybe they want to go out and really, really make an impact on refugees' lives. There's some refugees in your community. They want to go out and start a drive that's going to benefit them long term.
00:13:26
Speaker
They could ask at any sort of group home, retirement home, or other charity that's in your area. I remember doing some service for a charity that helped homeless single moms. It was one of the most rewarding experiences ever because we would throw baby showers for these women who were expecting babies and didn't have family or a support system. So many amazing, amazing organizations that you can approach and would just love to have a responsible team there.
00:13:54
Speaker
willing to do their bidding, right? But just, yeah, like you say, keeping your eyes open. And I would also suggest encouraging your teen to have an open mind as well, right? They might have something in their mind where they think, well, I only want to do X, Y, or Z. But if they can't keep their mind open, they might find an amazing opportunity that they would have never, ever thought about.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yes, yes, there are people that are less fortunate than you in the world, no matter what your fortune or situation happens to
Overcoming Challenges of Unpaid Service
00:14:22
Speaker
be. And those people can use your help and can't afford to pay you for it in any way, repay you for it. Okay, we wanted to talk about some other considerations, because these are kind of things that come up that we've run into. The biggest one for us has been that people will not understand.
00:14:41
Speaker
They will try really, really hard to repay your teen for what they're doing. And we've had to sit people down and explain to them, no, you don't understand. This is part of their, you know, since we homeschool, we could call it their senior project or something. This is part of their homeschooling, of their senior project, of their life that they are doing a big volunteer
00:15:04
Speaker
unpaid project because of the things that they're going to gain from it. We would explain it like if you pay them for it, it's going to diminish the value of what they're getting from it because then the focus will be on the money. We really want them to focus on these other things that we're trying to work into them. That's very hard for people to understand.
00:15:28
Speaker
And sometimes it is like it becomes a burden to people. Well, they're doing so much for me. I really can't. I must pay something. And in that case, you can kind of work out a scenario where if your teen has gas expenses, they can go ahead and pay the gas expense. So your kid isn't going into debt over this service project. But you have to kind of keep that in the balance. And that has been our biggest obstacle is people just don't understand what you're trying to do.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, I would imagine so. You know, I would also say that you could use it as an opportunity to teach people about the power of receiving service, right? So as Christians, many of us know the value of
00:16:14
Speaker
giving service and how important it is to us to show up as Christ would. But sometimes we forget the value in receiving service, right? We want to be the one that's helping, but when it comes to receiving the service, that's a little bit harder to do. It requires a little bit more humility, requires a little bit more, you know,
Personal Stories of Impact
00:16:30
Speaker
just openheartedness. But if you can explain that to someone like, hey, you will gain so many blessings by allowing them and look at what you are giving to them, the opportunity to do something without payment.
00:16:42
Speaker
Like, think about all the opportunities you had to do that and how great that feels. I want that for my kid, right? I love that.
00:16:48
Speaker
So I want to say that there might be some children that do not see the benefit of this. Even if you've tried to train them from early on, there are some personalities that just might really put up a stink about this. But I would say, just give them the chance. Tell them it's fine to require it, but give them the chance to find something that you really feel passionate about, right? If you just assign it, it's just going to be like a school project and they're not going to care so much. Although even that can be beneficial, I think. But when the kid
00:17:15
Speaker
their responsibility to go out and find it and really choose something they feel passionately about, it can totally change their whole world. It's amazing to watch.
00:17:24
Speaker
I wanted to add something else that if your teen is having a hard time with the thought of service or service project, you might take a look at how you respond to service opportunities. And I'm saying this mostly for me because my time is very valuable. And when I give that to someone else, maybe I give it to them
00:17:47
Speaker
Um, you know, very honestly and openly and say, Oh, it's no problem to their face. But what do I say in front of my kids back home? Like am I the same? Am I building? Like, yes, we serve. This is, this is an expense of my time, but, but this is what we do. This is we serve. Or am I like, meh, meh, meh, meh, you know, that's not for hours today. You know, what is our response? And so if our teen is having a hard time with it, like maybe like just turn that magnifying glass on herself.
00:18:15
Speaker
Okay. Now we get to share some of the projects that our kids have done. And if Bonnie and I sound a little braggy about what our kids have done, you have to forgive us because we really have kids and we're really proud of their projects that they've done. Okay. So, um, one of our daughters did, um, a project that, that, well, I told you earlier, they all fell into our lap, but at the time when she was ready to do her project, there was a family member who, um, was expecting her.
00:18:43
Speaker
fourth child and she came down with breast cancer. They discovered breast cancer while she was pregnant and so they kept the baby inside of her in utero as long as they could and then
00:18:55
Speaker
They took it when the baby, like they were doing, when do we need to start chemo and how long? Because it's always better for the baby to stay in. So at the point when it was all right for the baby, they'd made their assessments. My daughter went and lived with them because mom was then having a baby and she was a newborn. She had three other small children and she was going through chemotherapy. So our daughter went and lived with them.
00:19:20
Speaker
and cooked and cleaned and did all the baby care. And basically all the things that she knew how to do from home, but she was away from home and doing it for someone else as her service project. And that was, I think, several months that was her project. And that was really a life-changing experience for her.
00:19:39
Speaker
Our next son, when he was looking around for his project, it happened that one of our neighbors, a farmer, was in a farming accident and he could not physically farm. And it was, of course, right at a time of year when all the farming needs to happen. And so my son went for him and did his farming for him, you know, did drove the tractors and blended the corn and
00:20:03
Speaker
moved the cows and all the things that needed to happen. And in that situation, he did that I think for six weeks without pay. And then the farmer needed him to keep going. He was still in recovery from his farming accident. And so he wanted to then start paying our son. So then they rolled it into a situation where my son worked for him that summer.
00:20:26
Speaker
Our next daughter had the opportunity to be with an elderly relative who was dying of cancer and wanted to stay in his home as long as possible. So there was some hospice and then there was some family members caring. And she became part of that care team taking care of this elderly family member in his last days so that he could stay at home as long as possible. And hers was some on again
00:20:53
Speaker
off again like you can't do in those in those kind of situations you can't be there 24 seven it's too much mental physical emotional toil so she was just worked into the rotation and she was like on two days and off two days or you know whatever the rotation was but in that situation again no pay and learning all the learning all the things and the giving part of the project
00:21:21
Speaker
And in that one, they wanted to pay for her expenses of driving back and forth. And so that was about a three month, three, four month project as well. And then.
00:21:34
Speaker
Let's see our next son. We have some friends who had a business that they needed some extenuating circumstances and they needed some help in their business. And so he went and worked in their business for again, a three to four month project. And it was, he worked, you know, like a regular work day, like six to eight hours a day working in that.
00:21:58
Speaker
all the things with no pay, but again, learning their business and helping them. Just all these things that we were talking about earlier. And again, it was his project and people didn't understand, well, it is a business and we can pay. Yes, we understand, but this is a project and you won't pay.
00:22:16
Speaker
That's amazing. Oh my gosh. And so interesting that so many of those projects that your kids picked were very time sensitive, right? Like you're saying how they kind of just fell into their lap. Yes. That's amazing. Yeah. That's so amazing. So tell me this, how, how long like week month wise were most of the projects? Um, so most of them lasted, um, three to four months where it was the length of the project and they were at a point in their schooling. And one of them was a summer project, um, where they could work it in with their schooling and, um,
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, it was like a job except to no pay. It was their project. Yeah. Yeah. And then how many hours did they usually do per day? Did it just depend on the project? Right. Well, both my daughters were in a live-in situation. And so they were there. My one daughter that lived with the lady with breast cancer, she was there for three months straight. I think she came home maybe two weekends on that time. And then my other daughter taking care of the elderly
00:23:17
Speaker
that was like two days on, two days off. So like 48 hours on, 48 hours off.
00:23:26
Speaker
I'm just thinking about myself at 17 or 18. I would have loved doing something like that. Just feeling so responsible and really, really giving back to somebody in need. There's also something so pure about teenagers. They get such a bad rap, but you guys know our feelings about teenagers, that we love them. We love our many tiny pre-adults. There's something so pure about them where they can just see the good in people. And if given the opportunity to serve them, their hearts just bust wide open. It's so beautiful. Whereas those of us who are in our 40s are a little bitter already.
00:23:53
Speaker
It'd be a little more cynical about life. Our two sons, they weren't in a live-in situation in their community project that they were doing, but we got to see the benefits more of it through them because they would come home at night and they would be dead tired. Both of them were very physical jobs and they would be dead tired, but there would just be this glow about them. This isn't about me. They get that and this isn't about me.
00:24:21
Speaker
and the service and it just like watched watching them turn from like the final metamorphosis from a man to from a boy to a man.
00:24:30
Speaker
you know, from the caterpillars of the butterfly, which is really, really beautiful for us to watch as parents too. We're like, this is working. This isn't working. That's so amazing. I love it. I love it.
Societal Benefits of Teen Service
00:24:42
Speaker
Okay. So our family has not had anything quite like that yet because the main goal for kids in our faith is to go on their mission trip, which they go at between 18 or 19 years old.
00:24:54
Speaker
and it's full time and it's either a year and a half or two years. So that's kind of a really big project and it usually requires quite a bit of saving money for it. They pay their own way. It costs about $10,000 to do and then they're shipped off somewhere. They don't know where.
00:25:09
Speaker
and they're partnered up with somebody else and then they just teach about Jesus all day long. And so both my husband and I did that as well and absolutely the highlight of my life, you know, besides getting married and having kids, you know, to just dedicate your life to people that you don't know and to learn to love people that are very vastly different from you. So I'm really excited for my kids to experience that. They don't have to do it, but we do encourage it. And my oldest is preparing for that. He turns 18 this summer.
00:25:35
Speaker
But in the meantime, we do encourage some of these smaller projects. I had this great idea. My son didn't end up doing it, but I think I'm going to talk one of my kids into doing it. My grandma lives in a senior center, and most of the time, if she needs help with anything, it's something technological, right? Like, oh, my phone app went weird. I can't log in or whatever. Can you please help me? So me and my sister and brother and mom will often help her with that.
00:26:00
Speaker
But I thought, oh my gosh, wouldn't it be amazing if a teenager who knew how to do so much techy stuff would just show up every Wednesday and help all the seniors with their computers and phones? So I got to get one of my kids to do that. So that was one of my ideas I had. That is absolutely genius. Yeah. Right? Wouldn't that be brilliant? Yeah. And they would just pinch their cheeks and just be so delighted to have these sweet kids come and share their knowledge with them.
00:26:24
Speaker
So my kids are involved in a lot of regular home and large yard projects so that's something that's pretty common in our congregation is someone will have a wood chip drop or something and all hands on deck and they go over for a day or two to shovel all of that. Another one is like serving a widower or a widow who is alone especially in their advanced years doesn't quite want to go to a
00:26:46
Speaker
home yet but needs a little bit of extra help around the house and very often just needs company. So that's been kind of a fun project to look for. I personally had some experience doing a lot of tutoring for free when I was a teenager and I loved this opportunity. In one of my schools there was a large Mexican immigrant population and so I just tutored them in English because I spoke Spanish and just helped them kind of get a grasp on their school work.
00:27:13
Speaker
And then when I was a young adult, I did the same thing, but kind of switched. I worked in the missionary training center where they were training missionaries to go out. And I helped those who were learning Spanish kind of catch up who were struggling. There's also refugee camps, so many refugees coming into the country at all different times, or anyone else who's kind of in a survival stage. Like you say, this woman who was going through breast cancer, this thing where it's like takes everything in you to just put one foot in front of the other can be an amazing opportunity for kids.
00:27:41
Speaker
So much great stuff out there. Yes. Those are awesome experiences for the kids to go through, just the selflessness. Even if it's just a one day project or one afternoon project, they come back and you see that satisfaction that comes from outside of them. They helped. They made a difference. They did something. I have helped elderly people as well with their electronics and teaching them
00:28:07
Speaker
the simplest things and they think you're like a hero. And you're like, well, actually I thought everybody knew how to double click, but a mouse. Yeah, but you didn't learn that in college. No, I'm too old. You wrote your papers on paper and all that. Yeah. And only requires a little bit of patience and time from you, you know?
00:28:34
Speaker
And I personally can learn so much from my kids too. When my kids go out recently, they had a big yard project they were helping someone with. And they went over for a few hours and they came home and I said, oh, how'd it go? Oh, we didn't get it done. We're going to go back later. And they went back a couple of times. And I was just so impressed with how willing they were to give up their time. And I thought, how willing am I to give up my time? I mean, most of the time I just justify it in that I'm serving my family all day long.
00:28:56
Speaker
But what, what a valuable way to serve God by stepping into someone's life who desperately needs your help and being willing to offer your precious time that could be used in so many other ways. Yes. Yeah. So I have a final thought here. You know, colleges love to see on their application. There's always a place to fill in this kind of thing. And our kids as homeschools maybe don't have as many service opportunities in some ways like, like you're used to seeing, you know, for
00:29:24
Speaker
college you can be in this club and it can go do that and that thing you know but there's not necessarily that so there is a place on a college application for these kind of things to be put in colleges love to see oh this is a kid who knows how to give their time and for free and that kind of thing so my final thoughts here are if you can do this with
00:29:45
Speaker
And more importantly for your teen, if you can help them do this, this is, there's no, like you said, it was like the, one of the most wonderful things you did in your life. Like that, give your kid that, give your kid the ability to take something like that into their life for them. It will make a difference in their life. And it's something they can draw back on. Oh, I remember when I was doing this project and I.
00:30:09
Speaker
was tired and I wasn't getting paid and I was hungry and I was, you know, but so and so needed me and, and I could feel that need. And that's just something really, really powerful that we can give our kids going into their adult life. They're launching pad. Like if they're launching pad is.
00:30:23
Speaker
service and gratitude, like there is no better place to start out their adult life from. And so I just think it's really amazing. I really can't wait to see, like we've had four kids go through this activity and I can't wait to see what opportunities come the way for my other five kids. I'm really looking forward to it and I encourage you to try it with your teens too.
00:30:50
Speaker
Yes, thanks so much for sharing each of their projects. They were just delightful to listen to. And I would make sure that we all recognize the pure goodness that comes from a child serving another, despite the actual service that they're giving. So even not counting the care that they're giving the elderly or the farm work that they're doing,
00:31:13
Speaker
Just how it changes people to see someone do something for nothing. Like, like I say we got a lot of people saying, Oh, I know I want to pay you or this makes me feel uncomfortable or we got that a lot as missionaries they would say, but but why are you here and we would explain well because we
00:31:29
Speaker
and we want to teach you about him and about how you can find more joy in your life. No, no, no, but why are you here? We're like, no, no, no, that's why. And no, we're not getting paid. And it blows people's minds. And so think of all the good that you are doing, you and your family are doing by being that example of this pure, unadulterated love. We're just doing it to show love, right?
00:31:52
Speaker
Even if they never get actual help from you, just seeing it be done, I feel like it just fills the world with so much more goodness. And that's what we can all use right now is more goodness, right? I know I've mentioned this on a previous episode as well, but if you are looking for service opportunities, go to justserve.org. It's an awesome organization. We do quite regularly hop on there for youth projects or things for our teens or families. They explain the project, tell you who to get in touch with, and tell you the time commitment and what's required. It's a really, really great place to start.
00:32:22
Speaker
That's all we have for you this week. We hope this episode has been helpful for you guys. I'm Audrey. I'm Bonnie, and we're Outnumbered. Thanks for listening, friends. Click the link in the show notes to subscribe to our email and never miss another episode. Show us some love by leaving a review on iTunes or sharing the podcast with a friend. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week.
00:32:49
Speaker
You remember what I said at the beginning of this episode that both of our families have a word. I could think of the English word for it. It was not hilarious. I'm totally going to do that.
00:33:04
Speaker
Oh, we told, we had this missionary over and she was, um, she's in Chile and, um, she was, came to our house, one of the first places she came back when, um, and, and she was like, it was getting toward evening and she was like, you know, the later in the day that we get the more Spanglish you're going to get. Her brain stops working. She started getting mixed together. Okay. Where was I? She really can say, I can't think of the English word for it. I know.