By Jill Harlow – Loveland, Colorado…Even though personal contact is limited these days, HMS Richards Adventist School teachers are still finding unique and creative ways for their students to serve the community.

Kari Lange’s first and second graders are using their budding handwriting and artistic skills to share Bible verses through the mail. A staple of the curriculum, students write a Bible text each week on a paper and color the border themselves. Lange mails these out to church members who are feeling isolated during these difficult times.

“During stay-at-home orders, it was so exciting [for me] to get personal mail that I thought my class could encourage our church members through their writing,” Lange explained.  “Our church supports us in so many ways; this is a simple way my class can give back. They sign a cover letter and have learned how to address the envelopes all by themselves. So far, we have mailed out some thirty Bible verses.”

When asked about the project, Callista Jahn, 2nd grader, said, “It makes me feel happy to be helping someone else.”

COVID isn’t stopping the students in fifth and sixth grade from their work at Lon Hagler Reservoir. The pupils spend about two hours almost every month wandering two-and-a-half miles of trails around the shore collecting trash and keeping this natural space a pleasant reprieve for visitors.

Zachary Harlow, fifth-grade student said, “I think cleaning up the lake is a good way for us to serve because it gives our community a clean place to go. I feel good when we clean it up because there is always a lot of trash.”

“The class usually averages twenty to thirty bags of trash each time we go. Our very first time cleaning the lake, we found thirty-five-quart containers of used motor oil,” Paul Bragaw, fifth and sixth grade teacher commented. “Students are awesome with cleaning the lake and love to find treasures, except none of us like the dirty diapers, cigarette butts, or beer cans! But that being said, students have learned that even the smallest trash matters and shouldn’t be thrown down on the ground.”

The teachers at HMS Richards continue to recognize the importance of teaching students the value of serving others. Through their service, there are many valuable spiritual lessons to be learned, Bragaw explained. “Our class has discussed how sin in our lives can relate to the trash we pick up around the lake. Jesus takes all the sin or trash in our lives and throws it away forever!”

–Jill Harlow is the communication director at Campion Academy; photos by Kari Lange and Paul Bragaw