Open today’s lesson by reading this brief story to your students:

Rajan is 13 years old and lives in an Indian orphanage, where he heard about Jesus and began to develop a personal relationship with God.

In spite of the hard things he’s experienced, Rajan is still your classic teen, goofing off with friends and playing games. And like a typical teen, he doesn’t find chores very exciting, especially those involving laundry. 

One day, his teacher found Rajan hand-washing the dirty socks of 20 of his friends.

Now, these aren’t your average socks that get worn once and then tossed into the laundry basket. These belong to children living in a dry and dusty terrain filled with countless insects, wild monkeys, snakes, and pothole-marked dirt roads. It’s likely these socks are the only pair they own, many ragged and worn.

As he grew in his relationship with Jesus, Rajan noticed how Jesus served others—and realized that he could serve others, even at the orphanage. Rajan demonstrated the heart, sacrifice, and humility of Jesus by serving others.

• Why do you think Rajan chose to serve his peers in this way? What reasons could he have given for not serving others? (Accept all thoughts, though students may reference Rajan’s desire to serve others as Jesus did. They may also share that Rajan could have focused on his difficult circumstances, rather than serving people.)

Rajan is an example of a willing volunteer.

• Why do people volunteer? (Answers will vary; Jesus tells us to help others, to help others who might not have what they do, to give back if they were served by someone else.)
• What kinds of projects or tasks have you volunteered to be a part of? (Responses will vary depending on the passions and interests of students.  Make a list of volunteer experiences on the white board.) 
• How does it feel to volunteer? Have you enjoyed it?  Why or why not?  (Allow students to share about their volunteer experiences.)

King Solomon honored God by taking on the huge job of building the temple.  Unlike Russell, Solomon gave his time and effort without expecting anything in return.  Let’s see what we can learn from Solomon’s example as we look more closely at our lesson.