Third Graders Become Justice Seekers
On any given day in Sheboygan County, someone is waking up on the floor, perhaps using a towel for a blanket, and eating their breakfast out of a package, no plates or silverware to be had. Floors are hard and cold. Towels are small and thin. Packaged breakfasts are poor nutrition and unsatisfying.
The rest of the day is set up to be unfulfilling too. Basic needs are being met, just barely, but the feelings of inadequacy and shame are a thick barrier to a thriving life. Hopelessness fills the heart as this stark reality of their life shouts, “You are a failure and you cannot break free of it!”
“Sadness is part of the human condition but lack of hope and lack of feeling worthwhile are not. Feeling hopeless is not because there is no hope at all, it’s because you feel there’s none.”
-Edward Shorter Ph.D., Psychology Today
What is it like?
“A distance between you and the world. You cannot see any tangible future, so there is a feeling of hopelessness.” –Heather Eyre, blurtitout.org
“Like your own personal hell, specially tailored to you!” -Rebecca Cooper, blurtitout.org
Love In the Name of Christ is here to offer the love of Jesus through its Volunteers ready to walk alongside the hopeless in a journey to thriving instead of surviving. But how do we help each other understand what living a hopeless life is like? Lisa Roerdink, from Bethel OPC in Oostburg, and Ms. Meinnert, 3rd grade teacher at Oostburg Christian School, found a way to bring some third grade students a glimpse into this life.
“How would you feel if you walked into an empty room and all you had were the clothes on your back and a toothbrush;” asked Mrs. Roerdink. This question ensued a conversation about people who struggle to meet their basic needs and how Christians can help.
Lisa explained that Love INC came to Sheboygan County to help churches work together to make people’s lives better. People can call Love INC and tell a Christian volunteer their problems and ask for help. One thing Love INC can help with is providing basic furniture.
It is hard to understand what it’s like not having furniture so the students started by listing all the ways they use tables and chairs. The list was longer than they had imagined.
Next, students were invited to experience a day at school without their basic furniture. All day long kids lay and sat on the floor to do their work and dug around in a box to find their supplies. It is possible to get some school work done, but as one student said:
“I learned that it is hard to do everyday things without having what you need.”
“Why do you do this?” a student asked. Lisa responded, “I can be the hands and feet of Jesus and help someone who is hurting by giving a hand up.”
Now it was time for Ms. Meinnert’s third graders to become JUSTICE SEEKERS, so they created an action plan to help too. They wrote letters to local furniture stores to encourage them to donate to Love INC and hung signs in their school telling people they can donate their gently used furniture.
At the completion of their project, one student remarked:
“I felt like I was supporting God.”
Won’t you JOIN US in living out God’ greatest commandment to love one another as I have loved you (John13:34)?
