Turn: 

• As Christians, one of the ways we love our neighbors is by turning our attention and care to them and making sure that their needs are met. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in our communities who don’t have enough, even as it feels like what we have might be too much. 

• Work with a grown up to see if there are things you can give to a neighbor in need, like food, gently used clothes, or toys that might be ready for another child to love. Your grownup can help you find out how to get these items to your neighbors who might need them. 

• Take a picture of your donation, or write a few sentences or draw a picture about how it felt to turn towards those in need by sharing what you had. 

Learn:

• A neighbor can be someone you know very well or someone you don’t know at all. It can be harder to notice neighbors we don’t know. Learning about our neighborhoods, the places we live with our neighbors, can help. 

• Using the computer, learn about your neighborhood. Who are your elected officials? Who lives in your neighborhood--are they mostly like you, or mostly different? Who were the first inhabitants of the land you live on? These are some questions to start with, but if you find something interesting, run with it! 

• Write a short paragraph or draw a picture about something you learned. 

Pray: 

• Often when we pray, we pray for ourselves, our families, or our friends. It can be harder to pray for people we might not know as well. 

• Try praying for your neighbors, especially for people you don’t know well. You can say your prayer out loud, write it down, or pray with a parent. 

• Write down or draw your prayer, or share a few sentences about what it felt like to pray for someone else.  

Worship: 

• In our worship, one of the things we do is pray for ourselves and others all together with a type of prayer called the Prayers of the People. You have probably heard them before in church or in Children’s Chapel. 

• Think about what it means to love your neighbor. What would you like all of us to pray for, so we can love our neighbors better? Write down your prayer and send it to us.

• Some examples: “For peace, so that our neighbors can live in a world without fear of fighting.” “For the earth, so our neighbors can breathe clean air.” “For better housing conditions, so all of our neighbors have a place to live.”

• These prayers will be used in a future worship service at Grace!

Bless:

• Sometimes, loving your neighbors means helping them. Sometimes, it means showing that you care. 

• Work with a grownup to brainstorm something you can do to bless, or show love, to your community. 

• Take a photo, draw a picture, or write a short paragraph about what you did to show love to someone else. 

Go:

• For this Waypoint, ask another family or friend from church who lives nearby to join you if possible! Jesus sent the disciples out two by two, after all.  

• Go outside! Take a walk around your neighborhood. What do you notice? Are there any places that are different from the rest? What makes them different? What makes other parts of your neighborhood the same? Are there any needs you can identify in your neighborhood?

• Take some pictures of your neighborhood, or draw about your reflections, then write a short paragraph about something you noticed that you haven’t noticed before. 

Rest:

• Try, for a whole day, to rest from saying unkind things about others. When you feel yourself about to say something unkind to or about someone else, pause, and think of something kind you could say instead. In that pause, you might feel God opening up another way for you to relate to your family, friends, and neighbors. 

• This kind of rest is the beginning of a practice that can help you love your neighbors with your words as well as your actions. It can take a few tries to go a whole day without saying something unkind, and it is a continual place of learning and growing for all children of God (even the grownups). 

• When you go a whole day without saying something unkind to or about another person (or yourself!), write a few sentences or draw a picture about what it felt like to take a rest from unkind words.