For Be Rich beyond pre-arranged service projects, we want to expand your service options. Perhaps the best way for you to serve this holiday season is to create your own service project. It could be that you serve someone already in your life such as a sick neighbor, a jobless member of your small group, or a single mom struggling to pay her bills. Below are some suggestions you can use as a starting place to come up with your own way to "be rich in good deeds" to others. Feel free to be creative!

After you serve, we'd love to hear about your experience! Click here to tell us your stories or to read about what others have done.

Serving

• Mow a yard, rake leaves, clean gutters, or wash windows for a neighbor who's elderly, sick, or busy with young kids.
• Fill a single parent's refrigerator and/or freezer with food.
• Provide Christmas presents for a family whose parent(s) lost their job.
• Visit a nursing home to hang out with residents, sing, do a Bible study, or pass out approved treats.
• Ask the counselor at your child's school for the name of a family who could use assistance.
• Organize a book, clothing, hygiene product, or toy drive to give to a nonprofit
• Give a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal to a family.
• Develop a relationship with a shut-in through phone calls, visits, meals, cards, or presents.
• Decorate a Christmas tree at a nursing home, hospital, school, or homeless shelter.
• Visit yard sales to purchase nice, cheap items to give away.
• Collect old cell phones, eyes glasses, or another targeted item to be donated to a nonprofit.
• Take photos during a nonprofit's event and donate them to the event organizers.
• Organize an unused furniture pick up in your neighborhood using a nonprofit's truck
• Share a talent through teaching a class at a nursing home, school, or homeless shelter.
• Do repair work on a single mom's home or change the oil in a low-income family's car.
• Assemble a new parent's kit for the arrival of a newborn.
• After Christmas, give to the needy one toy or piece of clothing for every new one you receive for Christmas.
• Go for a walk with a senior citizen in your community.

Giving

You can also serve others by raising funds to give away. Many nonprofits that are integral to our community are hurting financially. Here are some suggestions to get you thinking.

• Sell unused items from around your house on e-bay or craigslist.
• Host a bake sale.
• Trick-or-treat for canned goods instead of candy to donate to a food bank.
• Have a yard sale.
• Have a party and ask guests to bring a gas or grocery gift card to give away.