“I’m ready,” I said, as I stood in Jane’s doorway with a bag of jars.

A few weeks earlier, I had given jars of homemade strawberry freezer jam to several neighbors. Jane loved the jam so much that I offered to come over to her house and show her how easy it is to make. I brought empty jars and she had the ingredients ready.

“Mmmm! This is delicious!” Jane tasted the jam on her finger and gave some to her son.

We had a great time together.

This year I invited her over and we made gel candles together and shared some good laughs at our mistakes.

Jane had received Christ with me years ago, but got out of the habit of going to church and never seemed to have time to do a follow-up Bible study.

I thought of some other ideas for spending time getting to know your neighbors and just “being neighborly:”

• Have a Pampered Chef party
• Host a game or movie night
• Do crafts together
• Visit them regularly and learn their language or customs
• Clean trash from their yard
• Pick them up at the airport
• Walk with them when they take their little ones trick-or-treating
• Help with yard or house work
• Pass along your kids’ clothes or toys to their younger kids
• Have a “block party”
• Share food or plants from your garden
• Exercise together
• Meet other members of their family
• Go shopping together
• Go to events together (I went with Jane when she became a US citizen. She came with me to an Andre Kole presentation.)