"It's My Party and I'll Serve if I Want to"
by Claire (11), Olivia (9), and Hailey Anderson (7)

It started with Hailey. Her birthday is four days after Christmas, and she decided that she didn’t need any more presents the year she turned five. She really loves dogs, so she decided to collect dog toys for the SPCA.

The next birthday that came around was Claire’s, and she decided that she really didn’t have anything that she needed, and she wanted to collect books to send to the children at HRBC’s Hyaets mission partner. All the girls at the party wrote notes to put in the books they donated in order to share something special about their book with the child who was receiving it.

That same year, Hailey had her party early in December because she wanted to adopt an angel from the Angel Tree. She wanted her friends to bring donations to a girl that was six just like her instead of presents for her.

This year, Olivia decided for her birthday to collect things for CARITAS and was amazed at how caring all of her friends were and how much thought they had put into thinking of things that would make our homeless friends more comfortable.

Each birthday, it became part of the fun to figure out how the things we collected for our birthday could be a blessing to someone else. We see God working in our friends in many caring ways. They seem to know what people need. It makes us feel that God brought the light into us and inspired others to do it too. It makes us feel like we are doing the thing that if Jesus were with us, we would see Him smile!

We can see God through our actions and sometimes words. What and when do you see God through?

Pictured here: Hailey and her birthday collection.