Mark your calendars for the next SHINE! Nebraska District LCMS Servant Event • April 2025
Serve others, connect with one another, and let the light of Jesus shine!
The Nebraska District LCMS wants to shine a spotlight on service each April. Throughout the district, groups of two or more people are asked to give witness to the love of Jesus through acts of service to their neighbors and communities. Simply join with some people from your church, school, small group, ministry group, family, etc., and serve!
How does your church or school fit into your neighborhood? Are you like someone with whom your community members can chat over the fence or share a cup of coffee – or are you the stranger who lives across the alley they wave at but never talk to? The Bible says “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7) How can we show love to our neighbors? By being neighborly!
Building relationships with your community should start inside your congregation with prayer, conversations and encouragement. The prayer is that God will show your people how they can shine His light outside the church walls. The more encouragement and equipping of your members, the more engagement that can take place.
SHINE Resources
40 Ways to SHINE
Before undertaking these acts of service, please contact the organization you’d like to partner with to make sure your service is welcome. These are just some starter ideas—there are many ways to SHINE!
- Bake cookies and snacks for local food pantries
- Make lunches for the needy
- Hold a popsicle giveaway at a park
- Volunteer at a local food pantry
- Hold a “Donut Event” for those who serve our communities (police and fire stations, dentists, doctors’ offices, nurses’ stations at hospitals)
- Pick up litter at a shopping center
- Clean up a park
- Clean up the school grounds of a local school
- Rake leaves, mow lawns, and clean up the yard of a shut-in/elderly person
- Wash windows at a shut-in’s house
- Paint playground equipment at a park
- Collect and deliver non-perishable food items to a local food pantry
- Collect and donate hygiene products for local shelters
- Collect school supplies for a local school
- Ask a local school what needs their families have so you can assist
- Collect blankets, sheets, and newspaper for local animal shelters
- Assemble first aid kits for local shelters
- Volunteer at your local library
- Volunteer at a local nonprofit
- Hold a blood drive
- Hold a free car wash
- Hold a “give what you can” car wash and donate proceeds to a local charity
- Hold a concert for the community
- Make birthday cards and party bags for children in shelters
- Collect materials and make book bags for the pediatric wing of a local hospital or doctor’s office
- Write letters or send cards to seniors in care facilities
- Write letters or send cards to service men and women
- Color pictures for troops or seniors
- Place door hangers that have Bible passages on neighborhood doors
- Host a bingo event or play other games at a local shelter or nursing home
- Sponsor a bike-a-thon & teach bike safety
- Read to residents at a local nursing home or shelter
- Care for children while parents enjoy a day or evening out
- Host a sing-along or devotion time at a nursing home
- Make quilts or blankets for children in hospitals, foster care, or shelters
- Host a dinner for your neighbors
- Provide water bottles to commuters at a train or bus station
- Partner with a local non-profit and help with events they hold
- Complete minor repairs for a shut-in/elderly person
How did we SHINE in our communities in 2024?
We are thankful for all who joined us in a District-wide focus on community service in April. This month-long emphasis gave congregations, schools, circuits, small groups, friends, and neighbors the opportunity to shine the light of Jesus while serving others. Approximately 1,700 people from the Nebraska District LCMS participated in SHINE this year!
Trinity Lutheran Church and School, Lincoln
Our second grade class put together twenty-two teacher kits and the first grade class put together sixteen student kits for Orphan Grain Train.
114 volunteers of all ages served with nine different organizations (Atlas: Lincoln, Food Fort, Fresh Start, Orphan Grain Train, Disrupting Traffick, City Impact, Trinity Lutheran School, Forward, and Trinity Lutheran Church) on Sunday, April 28. In place of our regular Sunday morning worship services, our members participated in a brief devotion/sending service at 9, served at their locations from 9:30-11:30, and then came back together for lunch and a time to share how they served that morning.
Jesus Our Savior Lutheran Preschool, Winnebago
Our team of eight installed “Put-in Cups” into our playground fencing that tells all who pass by, “JESUS LOVES YOU!” We also included the Native American Ministries Cross and a heart with a cross in our total design. The bright and bold colors of the design have received many compliments from community members. Sharing the love of Jesus with the Native American community of Winnebago!
St John’s, Cordova
Twelve members of St. John’s Cordova cleaned up community lawns by raking leaves and picking up sticks. We did two residential yards and the Cordova village park. Our group included seven adults and five youth. Recipients were very thankful and our group had a good time doing it.
Christ Lincoln Middle School
Our students love serving—we heard great stories of students interacting with nursing home residents over Bingo games, our middle schoolers enjoyed helping younger elementary students learn how to make tie blankets for the Child Advocacy Center, and our groups always speak so highly of the good work that Forward is doing to provide diapers and other essentials to the community. Our students learn a lot by serving with Forward and know they are meeting a huge need here in Lincoln.
Holy Cross, Kearney
We served at two events in April: a church work day on April 13 and a Jubilee Center meal (for the homeless or underprivileged/food scarcity population in Kearney). The meal was held at Holy Cross. We host the meals April-June each year on Thursdays and different groups of people provide the food.
Our group provided lasagna, salads, garlic bread, brownies, milk, juice, and water for 60 people. Our group prepared the food, served it, and cleaned it up.
LWML Deshler Zone
LWML Deshler Zone Workshop was held at Grace, Fairbury. We have been gathering items in our churches to benefit Hope Crisis Centers, a ministry to folks in crisis like sexual abuse, stalking, human trafficking, etc. The group assembled Shelter Welcome kits for the centers to share with folks who come, took needed supplies for the centers, and donated gift cards and funds to help with crisis center needs.
First, Plattsmouth Ladies Guild
First Lutheran Church Ladies Guild hosted the Sarpy Zone Spring Rally, ingathering items for the Baby Pantry at the local thrift shop, Under His Wings. Our Discipleship Outreach Team joined them in their effort by encouraging the congregation to participate in this ingathering through the month of April.
Nebraska District Office, Seward
The staff of the Nebraska District Office spent an afternoon with the Seward Foster Friends organization helping them sort and prepare donations of clothing, bedding, and other items needed by children who enter the foster care system.
Other SHINE projects in the District included:
➤Working in community gardens
➤Visiting, singing hymns, and playing games with people in care facilities
➤Assembling care packages for college students, military members, and homeless people
➤Sorting donated items for Orphan Grain Train, shelters, pregnancy care centers, and community pantries
➤Making cards for shut-ins and people in care facilities
➤Making meals and care kits for shelters
➤Construction and maintenance tasks for the homes of elderly and other families in need in the community
➤Preparing care kits for families with newborn babies
Last year, 18,000 people participated in SHINE in the Missouri and Northern Illinois Districts of the LCMS, and we are excited that we were able to join them in 2024. We’re looking forward to participating again in April 2025.
Learn more about SHINE in this article from the Synod Reporter magazine.