A grade school classroom, warm with commotion, excitement, and the promise of Christmas vacation soon at hand. Amidst the whirl of small students and activity, Valerie Schultz, second grade teacher at St. John Lutheran School, speaks up.

“Before we start, second graders, who are we doing this for? Who gets them?” she asks.

“Foster children,” some of the students pipe up.

“Yes, which means they are not for us, so I do not want to see any pushing or shoving as we stuff these backpacks!”

And so Second Grade’s Christmas Service Project began. Every year, every class at St. John Lutheran identifies a need and completes a project in service to others before dismissal for Christmas Break. This year, second graders did their project as a Thrivent Action Team, as Thrivent provided funds and t-shirts to the class to make stuffing these backpacks for foster children in need possible.

Mrs. Schultz spoke with the students and made sure they partnered together to fill a backpack with books, toys, tissues, toothbrushes, snacks, and other fun and useful items. After making teams and hearing the rules from Mrs. Schultz, she led the class in prayer, thanking God for the material blessings they had received and asking that Jesus’ love would be shared with the boys and girls who received these gifts.

Even at this young age, students at St. John Lutheran School learn what it means to give hands and feet to the words of Christ, combining the Gospel with mercy as they remember the needs of others in the world at Christmastime.