A teenage boy is spending his summer mowing lawns across his neighborhood and the reason behind it will leave you inspired.
Most teenagers this time of year are sleeping in, scrolling their phones or hanging out with friends. That’s just what summers look like at that age. But every now and then God puts a different kind of heart in a young person and you just have to stop and notice.
Konner Farewell mows lawns. That’s the simple version. But what he does with the money is where the story gets good. Every dollar he earns goes toward sending third through sixth graders to summer camp. He keeps his prices low on purpose and most people don’t even know why until someone tells them.
His youth pastor Tony Butler at Brookwood Baptist Church has been watching this kid grow up for a while now. “Just watching him mature and just having a heart for serving and to be able to just give what he can” he said.
Konner also shows up almost every Saturday to help fix up a cabin at Falls Creek before camp season starts. Nobody makes him do it. He just shows up.
His neighbor Carolyn Martin nominated him for News 4’s Pay It Forward award after she found out what he was really doing with the lawn money. First Fidelity Bank handed him $400 on the spot.
What makes this even more personal is that Konner started mowing lawns when his mom was going through breast cancer treatment and couldn’t do it herself. “I find it relaxing the smell of grass” he said. “It’s something I’m good at and it benefits others.”
His parents say he’s always been this way. And now other people in his community are seeing it too. A whole group has started getting together weekly just to go serve alongside him.
Most of us want people to notice when we do something good and that’s just human nature. But Konner didn’t tell anyone what he was doing with the money. He just kept showing up and kept mowing.
That’s exactly the kind of giving God talks about in Matthew 6:4 where Jesus says “that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”
We all have a summer ahead of us and we all have something we’re good at. Maybe it’s not mowing lawns but there’s a neighbor who needs help, a local shelter that needs volunteers or a kid in your community who just needs someone to show up. Whatever it is, use it for something that matters beyond yourself.
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