NextGen on Elevate Springfield with Ellie Ferriell: Featuring Addy Ferriell

Summary

In this episode, Ellie and her sister Addy discuss the significance of serving in their community, particularly through their experiences in children's ministry at their church. They explore the various ways to serve, the fulfillment it brings, and how serving can extend beyond religious contexts. The conversation emphasizes the importance of overcoming anxiety related to serving, finding one's niche, and the positive impact serving has on both individuals and the community as a whole.

Takeaways

• Serving brings fulfillment and joy to both the server and those being served.
• It's important to serve in various areas, not just within religious contexts.
• Overcoming anxiety about serving can lead to personal growth and community connections.
• Serving can be as simple as helping a neighbor or volunteering at a local organization.
• Everyone has a unique niche where they can contribute and serve others.
• Serving helps create a supportive and caring community.
• Small acts of kindness can have a significant impact on someone's day.
• Engaging in service can change one's perspective on community involvement.
• It's okay to try different areas of service to find what fits best.
• Serving is essential for the well-being and functioning of society.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, y'all. Time to 10X.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Hey everyone, welcome to the next gen on Elevate Springfield. I'm Ellie and I'm here with my dad Robert.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Together, we're talking about what really matters to teens today. From school and skills to pressure, purpose, and possibilities. We'll share honest conversations, practical strategies teens can actually use, and a little dad-daughter debate.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

This is about listening, learning, and growing. Together, let's elevate the next generation.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

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SPEAKER_03 1:47

Hello, and welcome back to NextGen on Elevate Springfield. We're switching up my intro a little bit today because it might seem kind of strange, but I'm like the actual, actual host now. I've kicked my beloved father out, which is kind of ironic because we're filming this on Father's Day. Yeah. But he's gone. New voice. Can you guess who it is? Can you guess? I'll give you five seconds. Hi. One. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. One, two. Okay, five seconds is a bit too long. That's killing our time. So today, instead of with dad, we have my sister here with me. Hello. Are you excited? Yes. Which, like you said, it's ironic because it is Father's Day. Yeah, Father's Day. It's weird that we're doing like a sister podcast because we kicked him out of his own podcast. He said this is the first podcast that he's not been on. Yeah. I told him he could maybe make a cameo, but that's it for him, like a good mood or something. Yeah, you know. If we have a good podcast, we'll make him get a cameo. But how are you feeling? You like the chair? Yes, it's very comfortable, but I'm having a hard time not spitting. I thought you said spitting. Um, that's kind of strange. So how are you feeling about your first appearance on the show? I'm excited. Are you ready to talk? Yes. This is kind of weird for me too, because I do talk a lot, but I'm venturing out into more of dad's role in filling those silences, you know? Because usually I'm the one doing the silences and I'm waiting for him to do something. So now I'm the one filling them. Yes, that was a very long sentence. So, what is our topic today? You forgot to say that. I was gearing into it, but yes, that's a good question. What's our topic for today? Well, the reason why we brought Adeline in here is because we're going to be talking about serving today and the importance of serving, our experience with serving, serving your communities, serving other people, why you should be serving, how it's fun to serve. So that's our topic today. I am very excited for that topic. Okay, then let's get straight into it. So first, what area do we serve in? We serve in the four-year-old room at our church and with the little kids, they're so cute. We've been doing it for about a year and a half now, right? Because we started December of like Yeah, I think we're coming up around two years. Cause I think we started in like November. Yeah, of like 2024. I think. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll be coming up on two years this year in November, which I'm excited for. Yes. Okay. So yeah, we serve in the children's ministry and we serve with kids a lot. And we've actually expanded from there because we serve in the four-year-old room, like you say, but then we also serve in our kid care team. What's our kid care team? How does that work? Well, we have rooted for all like the adults, and we have all of these different things. So we watch their kids for them while they're going to do that, so they don't have to find a babysitter or anything. Yeah, all the different classes. So the free kid care were the people that are watching their kids. And we've been doing that for about a few months now. Yeah, we've served like two seasons, and the seasons are basically how long the class goes for. So I don't really know how long exactly that was, but I feel like we've been working for a while in there. Yeah. Does serving bring you fulfillment? Yes. I love serving with the kids. They're so cute. And I love serving in our church because I feel like I'm helping with like parents, and like sometimes it's hard to find babysitters and all that. So speaking of basing, we actually do basing as well. So yes, it does bring me fulfillment. What about you? Yes, I agree. I mean, you've always had a heart for kids. And I was a bit more awkward when I was a kid. So like I wouldn't throw myself at kids as you would. I would always throw myself at kids. We've had a lot of littler cousins. I always am the one like helping out with them and hanging out with them because they're so cute. Yeah. I've always liked kids, but I just never really like took that dive idea. Dove in like like I always just let you do it. But then within the past few years up since we started working in the four-year-old room. Yeah. Since I've started working in the four-year-old room a lot, I've definitely seen I love kids. Yes. I've definitely seen you grown in your kid loving and stuff. Thank you. And you're good with them too. Yes. Thank you. So one of my questions is that how does it work exactly? What's your job in there? And what are we doing specifically in the four-year-old four-year-old room that you mentioned? So usually um they drop off the kids first, and then we'll play with them and just hang out because we have different areas to play with them. So we play with them for about 20 minutes, and then we do our own service and we watch Ollie. It's a Bible story for kids. So we watch that and then we do some dances, mostly Danny Go, which I don't really like him, but it's okay. The kids like him, so that's okay. But he's what counts, I guess. Yeah. But we do some dances and then we do our memory verse, which changes once a month. So that's fun to learn the memory verse with them. And I've probably known like a hundred memory verses by now. Yep. So that's kind of what we do in there. And then after the memory verse, we go and do crafts, and that changes the crafts match the story that we learned about. So, and all the kids love crafts, and then we have snack, which is goldfish. Yeah, fun. So, what did you guys do this morning? Because today is Sunday, Father's Day, and you served at church, and I wasn't there, unfortunately. So I don't know what happened. Like, truly, I literally don't because I wasn't there. So what's going on? Okay, our story was about Gideon versus the Midianites. And so, like I said, a minute ago, we do a craft. So Gideon is his army, they basically they had torches and they like to beat the minionites, and so they had torches and everything. So we made little torches for the kids, like on paper, not really any like real torches, they were just the little drawing ones. I thought they weren't real torches. I wouldn't trust four-year-olds with real torches. Yeah, but they were little like paper torches that they colored and they put stickers on. So yes, that's what we did. And their torches were very pretty. They had little round stickers on them, and they were very colorful. So it was very pretty. And I think obviously we serve in our church a lot, but I also think it's important to serve outside of church because obviously not everybody is religious or Christian. I think it's important to serve people outside of church, even if you aren't a religious person, because serving isn't exclusive to religion. It's just it that's how the world goes around. I mean, no matter if you're getting paid or not, usually serving is you're not. But I still think that in in general view, you're serving no matter what. I feel like when you're babysitting, you're still serving. But like like let's say, like a waiter or a waitress job, obviously you're getting paid for it, but you are still serving the person. Because I mean that's the whole point of a waiter and waitress job is that you're serving. That's the point. There's different descriptions of the word serving, but I think regardless, you're serving people in general, and that's how the world goes round. Which speaking of different religious not serving in churches or anything, I've also served in karate. I've served with there's a littler class, so I serve with that sometimes, and that's still serving. So you can really serve anywhere. It doesn't really have to be in your church because some people, even if they are religious, they don't have a good relationship with their church or anything. Yeah, definitely. We have a very big church, so it's very easy to find different areas to serve in. Yeah, definitely. And I think it's important to just like make that distinction because it's serving isn't automatically religious. And this entire episode isn't just gonna be like exclusive about religion, but obviously that's the area that we serve in. But serving just extends to so many different aspects. It's like insane. So, like you mentioned, you could literally just be helping out with the younger class at the sport you're playing. Or like help out with younger kids. Like if you have a neighbor or something, you can if they need help with their kids or something. Yeah, and then maybe if you don't really like kids and you're not really good with kids, there's plenty of other spaces for that too. It's not all like Yeah, but that's our experience with it. Yeah. Our church too, there's like a ton of different areas to serve. There's like food, there's really a ton of different because I said we have a big church, so there's a lot of different areas. There's not just kids to serve with. Well, that's kind of gonna be my question for you. Just how do you serve in a separate from religion area, I guess? It doesn't have to be separate, but if you're not religious, I've actually what areas? There's another area we gave out food to the homeless, remember that? Yeah. So there's a ton of different areas, like I just said a minute ago. Yeah, definitely. I but yeah, I think going back to how serving makes the world go round no matter. I think it being, yes, it is a biblical truth, but it being a religion thing or a religious thing is only a yes, it is, but even obviously, even people who aren't religious, it's it's still a thing. It's yeah, like people you can equ you can equate it to religion, however, it's a thing in general. And I think that's how the world goes around, no matter if you're getting paid for it or not. There are so many different ways to serve, and I what do you think it does to you and other people around you? I think it like I said earlier, it helps people, it also makes me feel better. Like it I feel like a better person after, but it's also just it's very fun to serve, and I just feel like it does help the people around you. It could be like the smallest thing, like helping bring in groceries or something. Yeah, definitely. It doesn't change anything for you, but it could change like for that other person. Yeah, definitely. That's really good. And I think it goes back and ties into the whole elevate Springfield thing. Because if we're elevating our community, we're serving our community and we're serving each other, right? Yeah, dad's in the background and he's Yeah, dad's over here and he's like, Yes. So that's how I know I cooked. So so that really does tie in with dad's whole thing. Yeah. Because elevating our communities is serving each other and serving our community because that's how it flourishes, and that's how it expands and grows, and we help each other and we help all of our businesses and everything like that. Like it just all it's all encompassing, you know? Slay. I definitely agree with you about it. Maybe small to you, but it could be really big to somebody else. And it's like it takes like two seconds out of your day, five minutes, you know. Like a little bit ago with my cousin. It was Mother's Day, I'm pretty sure, which is kind of it's Father's Day today. So but we were at her house and we cleaned her house for her, and she really appreciated it. She thought it was really sweet. Yeah, that was crazy. The probably grossest thing we did, we they have a ton of bird poop on their day. So we cleaned that off with just with a water gun. That sounds really fun. Yeah, but we cleaned it off. Well, actually, we did make it fun. We cleaned it off with a water gun and a broom. So I sprayed them with the water gun and then she went over with the broom. What happened to the broom? Um, it was a fake broom. So a toy broom? Yeah. But still, what happened to it? It's their outside broom, so it doesn't really matter. Okay. Okay. I guess that's fine. We made her bed, we cleaned the bathrooms. That was very nice of you guys. Yeah. And then we kind of just picked up stuff that was like around the house, like Nora's toys and stuff. Yeah. That's our cousin's name. Were you? How did you feel the first time you went in to serve? Because I think that's one thing that keeps people from serving, is because it's like, oh, well, maybe I'm not good at it. It's that anxiety, oh well, what if I mess things up? Like they're just nervous. Like, how did you feel the first time you went in there? And how did what actually happened combat what you were thinking? Well, I was pretty nervous the first time we went in, but I was glad because I was with you and mom. So it wasn't me going in by myself. And I really loved it the first time I went in. Like a lot of the kids were really sweet and nice, which is very sad because most of them have moved up, which I'll talk about that in a minute. But there I I really felt like it was just very sweet and it was definitely not what I thought it was. Uh, I definitely wasn't nervous after I was talking to all my friends about it, how I loved it. And now a lot of my friends have come served with me. I think three of them have come and served now, and more have come and tried it out, but they didn't like it because some people aren't good with kids, like we talked about. Yeah. Which is completely fine. Yeah. And what would you say to somebody that is wanting to serve but they don't have anybody to serve with, which obviously would make it easier. What if it's somebody that's just by themselves but they want to serve, but they're nervous too? What would you say to that? Well, I would say to try it out, maybe ask someone to come serve with you. And even if you don't have anyone, I definitely say go with serve anyways, because it's definitely, even if it's not something for you, you definitely have this feeling of fulfillment after. So I definitely would say, even if you don't have someone, definitely go try it out. Yeah, and learning what your area is. Even if they don't like that, then okay, now I know. You know, I'm not good with kids. I can go look at something else. Yeah, one of my friends literally told me today, I brought her into the four-year-old room, not today, but a few weeks ago. She's like, Yeah, I just don't think my serving area is with kids, and that's completely fine. So yeah. And just dip your feet in, like, try it out for one day. Doesn't suit you, doesn't suit you. It's yeah, and you can always move. And I mean, even who knows, you might even hopefully you'll find a community there, even if you don't come in with your people, then maybe you'll find people when you serve there. And I'm not gonna I'm not gonna act like it's all, you know, rainbows and cupcakes, because maybe you chose an area that's really difficult. And you could either like push through if you think it's really for you, or you could just go somewhere else, try something else out. Like it's I've just pop in for a minute, see how it's see how it's looking. Yeah, I've met a lot of people actually like serving in the area. We've have made a lot of connections in our church, and I feel like we've been more into our church once we started serving. Like we're going to church every Sunday, but I feel like we've definitely started like being more into the church and serving more. Oh, yeah. With that, and I feel like we're more into the church now. Oh yeah. Cause like beforehand, I kind of viewed church as just like a chore, I was thinking. Yeah. Like, uh like I didn't have a disdain for the church at all. I was just, I'd rather be home. Yeah, I'd rather be laying my bed on a Sunday. Yep. But then after I started serving there and making connections with people, and I don't, that's literally what everybody says. Like, literally, it's it's it's very tired at this point. I'm like, well, you know, it was a chore, and then I went, and then I actually like like but it's true. It is true. You got you got it, you gotta try it out for yourself, man. I'm telling you. I really actually enjoy getting up in the morning and going seeing all our kids, even though, like I said, I would talk about the moving up soon. So basically, all their kids move up to the kindergarten room and they just left, but I'm still going to church every morning, and I still love seeing all the new kids and all the new faces because you make relationships with kids, and some kids are scared to go in. So they like seeing you every week and then get more comfortable. Yeah, and I love being a kid's safe space and making them feel comfortable and playing with them. Yeah, because a lot of kids actually come in crying, some of them, when they have like when it's their first time. So I like going up and making sure they're okay and like being our safe space to come into the room. Yeah, and we can always use more people to do more things in the world. Like I I know sometimes the mindset is just like, well, like do they really need me though? I mean, they have so many people. I don't think they need another person. Like, man, like what will my presence do when that's not true? It'll fulfill you. And if everybody thought that way, we wouldn't have anyone. We wouldn't have anything anywhere if we have people doing things and serving other people in ways, so many different ways. Like everybody has their little niche thing that they're good at, and you can always use that to serve other people. Yeah, like you said, like niche things. You just gotta find where you could serve at and what's a good place for you. Like just dip your feet into kids, see if you're good at that. But if that doesn't work, try something else. Like, there's so many things you can do to serve me, it's not just kids. Yeah, and it's really if I was listening to this podcast, I'd be like, geez the wise, that seems like a lot. Like that seems kind of overwhelming, but it's really not because like for us, I guess we do it more than once a week. I was about to say it's only once a week. I mean, ours isn't, but it you can do it once a week. You could do it once a year for a summer camp. If you work at a summer camp or if you work at our cousin works at a summer camp, if you work at an annual thing, I guess. It could be once a year, it could be one week out of the year. It's really not like we serve in a lot of different areas, like we said, but it really doesn't have to be like that. You don't you can serve in one place. It doesn't have to be like, oh, I have to do all these things every week. Yeah, and and even then, I think serving extends to so much more than just a commitment to a sort of job, if that's what you want to call it, like showing up to church to help with the kids or showing up to here to help with the food, showing up here every week to do a certain thing. I think it extends so much more than that. It could just be random things throughout the day, every day that you're just randomly doing to help people. Like do the dishes for your mom, vacuum, really help the lady with her groceries out there, help that person cross the street, help with somebody's dog or something. Yeah, it could mow that person's lawn. It could be anything. Our cousin walks a dog just around her street once a day. Yeah, it could be anything, it doesn't even have to be an actual reoccurring job situation. Even on Sundays, we don't have to go every week. We do, but sometimes you you get to sign up like, hey, I'm coming today. Sometimes if you're like, oh, I'm tired today, I don't really want to come to serve, but I want to come to church. That it doesn't really need to be every week. Yeah. But why do you think it's important to serve? I think it's very important to serve for other people. Like I said, parents, and just it can make a difference in somebody's day. It can be small step for you, it can just be tiny thing, but it could change somebody's like whole perspective or something. Yeah, definitely. What would you say, like about not parents? I guess anybody's not parents. Just how is it important to serve people in general? Same thing, like it can change anything. It could be a very busy person, or you don't know what something could be going on in somebody's life. So it's definitely nice to serve them and that could change and make it something easier for them. Yeah. Like you said, mowing the lawn, walking a dog, so they don't have to worry about that. Definitely. Yeah, I agree. And I just think that's how the world works. The world wouldn't be working properly if we didn't have people that served other people. Our world would collapse. I think be nice to people, just serve and be kind to people. Yeah, I don't I don't think our world would be anything without people serving each other. Because, like I said earlier, people think the serving is just exclusively free when I see serving as a bigger genre, if that's what you want to call it. I see serving as way bigger than just like we do, where we choose to go and do something without getting paid for it, just to serve the people. But I see it as way broader than that. And I just I look everywhere and I see people serving people all the time. It's not just yeah, it's not just picky choosy. Yeah. I think my we might need to get a like a third chair in here for me. No, for you guys' podcasting or okay, okay. We have like four chairs back there, just like pulling our hands. You want to become a regular? Maybe. Why'd you make that face? Why'd you go? Could you describe the face if they're only listening? She made a disgusted face and her lip like went to the side and her eyes like narrowed and her eyebrows went up. Well, I personally don't want you stealing my segment. Yeah, she just did she she lifted one of her eyebrows and then her lips like went to the side. I don't want you stealing my segment. We might just have to add another day or something. So then I'll keep my alone segment. We can have like Tuesday and Wednesdays. You can have Tuesday, I guess. Okay. Okay. So I think you should find your niche. If everybody serves, then we can elevate Springfield. Oh, Slay, I loved that. Good job. Thank you. Well, thank you for joining us on NextGen on Elevate Springfield. We'll see you next time. Bye. See ya. I had to do the dad.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

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SPEAKER_02 23:13

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