Recycle to Raise Money for Bibles
To raise money to buy Bibles to give away to kids in its community, the children’s ministry at Destiny Church in Indio, Calif., urged attendees to bring recyclables with them to church every week throughout the summer.
Attendees left the recyclables by their vehicles. Adult volunteers then collected the bottles and cans from the parking lot and bins located on the church’s campus.
Kids in the church’s children’s ministry then accompanied their parents to a local recycling center to trade the materials for cash to fund a program the church called Cans 4A Cause. The ultimate goal? To raise enough money to give away 5,000 children’s Bibles to families at local community events and to families who attend the church but don’t have a Bible.
The ministry was a part of a larger outreach campaign called “Do Something,” and the recycling drive was the children’s opportunity to contribute to the community at large.
“[The children] have to be aware that ‘I’m not throwing this can in the trash, but I’m putting it aside and bringing it to church,’” says Mary Orantes, Destiny Church’s children’s director. “And [Cans 4A Cause] is their ‘Do Something,’ a part of giving back.”
A story about this ministry originally appeared in the September/October 2011 issue of Outreach magazine.
