7 Ways to Be a Good Neighbor This Easter

It’s almost Easter, and opportunities to be a good neighbor are right next door. Why not try one (or more) of these ideas?

1. Egg Your Neighbor
No, this is not throwing raw eggs anywhere! Fill a dozen plastic eggs with Easter treats. Sneak up to your neighbors' houses and hide the eggs around their doorstep or lawn. Put "We've Been Egged!" and "You've Been Egged!" signs on their front door (with non-paint-damaging tape) or in their mailbox. Ring the doorbell and run, or simply leave the eggs for your neighbors to find the next time they come outside. If you have been developing a relationship with them and have had some "Easter" conversations, put a little note in one of the eggs saying something like, “This egg is empty as a reminder that Jesus has risen from the dead! Happy Easter!”

2. Make Easter Decorations with Your Neighbors
Gather neighbors and all those random craft supplies and have a crafty fun afternoon creating Easter decorations, like cards and baskets. If the weather permits, do it on a front lawn or in a driveway. Consider giving the decorations you created to senior neighbors, nursing home residents, people who can't leave their homes easily, single parent families, teachers, mail carriers, police, or firefighters.

3. Have an Easter Potluck
Gather your neighbors together for a casual social time. It could be an Easter potluck, happy hour, spring coffee time, or something else.

4. Bake and Share some Easter Treats
Spend some time baking and sharing some Easter-themed treats with your neighbors. You could even gather a few neighbors to bake together.

5. Host an Egg-Dying Party
This can be a messy one, but host a party where people can dye or paint eggs! There are plenty of ideas on the internet.

6. Organize a Spring Clean-Up
If spring has sprung where you live, gather neighbors for a park, street, or other communal space clean-up. Be sure people wear gloves and have lots of garbage bags on hand. Alternatively, go in small groups to do some yard work for neighbors who are not able to do that work themselves.

7. Have a Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt
Gather with neighbors at a park or other green space and let the fun begin! Bigger kids can hide the eggs and little ones will have fun finding them! Suggest that everyone bring their own baskets and limit the number or eggs each child can collect (at least initially) to ensure that everyone gets some. Once the kids have their treats, save the plastic eggs for next year!

Easter-Themed Egg Stuffers:

• Candy/chocolate
• Balloons
• Bracelets
• Erasers
• Mini toy bunnies and chicks
• Riddles or jokes
• Stickers  
• Temporary tattoos
• Or something different, like jigsaw puzzle pieces or little blocks that participants assemble once all of the eggs are (hopefully) found
   

Karen Wilk is Resonate Global Mission's Go Local Catalyzer. Go Local is a process of learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit and join God at work in your neighborhood. Learn more at www.resonateglobalmission.org/golocal