You gotta love freestyle competitions in just about any sport. The competition always seems a little more intense and the athletes just a little more passionate about the win. When you take away just a little of the structure and let a person lean on their personal strengths and passions, something cool happens, the game goes to the next level and creativity abounds. That's part of the reason we did the $50 experiment this past summer and why we brought it back this month. It lets the individual members of our community lean on their passions and work with God in a unique way. I've already heard a few of the stories from last weeks Gone for Good, but I can't wait to hear them all. Get your posts up soon. Tell us what you did, what you loved most, how you saw God move and anything else you think might be important. We'd love to hear as many stories as possible so go ahead and post even if someone from your group already did. Just post your story by clicking the comment button below.
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We decided that, being pregnant ourselves, we wanted to direct our attentions to young pregnant mothers in some way. After a brainstorm, we decided to purchase some Walmart gift cards and then hang out in the baby section of Walmart, letting God lead from that point. And, as he is known to do, he took us slightly away from our own target, but probably produced better results. We met a young mother named Theresa with her two little boys, one of whom was having a birthday on Monday. We noticed she was buying diapers and looking through bargain pants for both of them. I hate to sound judgemental, but the observations led us to believe that she was probably on a thin budget and could use some help. Jill struck up a conversation with her about her and the boys, eventually letting her know that we wanted to help them out with their shopping that day. Theresa was surprised and a little speechless, but extremely greatful. As I was walking the baby aisles, I came across a young man named Eddie, shopping for underwear for his two boys. He and I talked about how quickly they grow out of stuff. I told him I had a gift card for him, and I discovered that he is so NOT used to gifts or help that he wanted to know how much I was selling it for. "For reals??" He said when I told him we were giving it to him. He was shocked and shook my hand vigorously in thanks. I explained who we were and what we were doing. He smiled a big smile and his attitude seemed to move to a much happier one.
It was a great day, and though we may never see Eddie or Theresa or their kids again, I know that they felt loved, and I know that their kids witnessed the kindness.
It was definitely out of our comfort zone. For the last $50 experiment, we helped out a family we were familiar with. These were strangers. It was a great experience for our family and a great opportunity to teach our children about giving and about BEING God's love.
Cool testimony Kevin and crew. I loved reading the stories from the last fifty dollar deal and I look forward to the other stories. I'd love to visit Kaleo and participate in the next one.
Our group had 3 couples, so we began the day with $150. After a bit of praying and meeting, we all decided we'd use our money to help people buy items they might need at the Goodwill store located on Coffee Road just down from WalMart.
However, a thought occured that it might be even better to buy gift cards from Walmart to hand out instead. Oddly enough, someone else from our group had the same though, independently I might add, while traveling to our meeting location. That was enough confirmation for us!
But before we did that, we had another thought. Why not buy car washes for people as they came into the CruzThru just one block away. So off we went. We decided to split the funds between car washes ($10 each) and the rest for the WalMart giftcards.
The carwash proved to be a great place to do this because: 1) it really caught most people off guard; why would wnyone stop you at the payment place and pay your way? 2) It gave the perfect opportunity to give them infomation about our church and why we were doing this for them.
Next, we were off to Walmart. After buying gift cards (loaded up with $20 on each) we headed out into the parking lot. Now the funny thing here is the reaction you receive when trying to literally give money away. Most people immediately think you are going tohit them up for money, so they tend to get defensive at first, or just ignore you if they can. However, we trudged ahead and made sure they understood this was a gift with absolutely no strings attached, (that is, other than God's love for them!).
In the end, I know we made many people smile, we were able to share information about our Church, and, hopefully, we planted some strong seeds that will eventually grow and create a harvest for the Kingdom.
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