It was so cold, no one wanted to get out their camera to snap photos…but we did (a few anyway). As we were planning our young adult Christmas event, we just knew a part of the night had to be dedicated to helping those who weren’t going to have as nice of a Christmas as we were going to have. So we decided to go out and buy $550 worth of gifts for kids and have a gift wrapping station that would be available for people to wrap a gift or two throughout the night. All 100 gifts were wrapped by 9pm with two hours to spare before we all headed home…that was awesome!
The plan was to head over to Chelsea Village Saturday morning at around 9:30am and hand them out along with coffee and donuts. To my surprise, around 15 of you showed up that morning- did I say it was Saturday morning and it was really cold? To me, getting 15 twenty-something’s out of bed, on the only day many of you can sleep in is a miracle... slightly behind the water from the rock event.
Upon arriving, we picked out our spot, set up some tables, spread out the gifts coffee and donuts and waited for God to move- to draw the people of Chesea Village to us. Guess what? It didn’t happen- after waiting in the brain numbing cold for 30 minutes without giving away one gift or donut we thought about going somewhere else ( I thought about never doing an outreach again and asking myself questions like- whose idea was this anyway- it couldn’t have been mine).
We got a letter from that lady today thanking us from the bottom of her heart. She said that when she delivered the gifts to the neighbor, the look in her eyes said it all- She also said there was a Christmas Tree on her doorstep – I don’t know if one of us did that or not. But either way, we had a huge part in saving Christmas for this family- I know it’s not about the gifts, but my prayer is that God will use those gifts for this family as a bridge to Him.
What a learning experience for all of us to go through. We had a plan, we thought that all we needed to do was set up shop and people would come. I mean, who wouldn’t- we had neatly wrapped gifts, hot coffee, donuts... a clown (good job Rick). It wasn’t until we packed up our spread, our neat arrangement of things, moved a little closer to the people, that we were able to minister to them. I believe our first run at it didn't work because God wanted us on their doorsteps, in their homes- having conversations, pouring their coffee, so they could see and experience more of Him and so we could see and experience more of them.
Sometimes we think our little venues, our programs, our church is it. But maybe sometimes God wants us, no needs us, to pack it up and move. It's hard to pack up and move our stuff isn't it. It’s amazing what God can do when we just move.
The plan was to head over to Chelsea Village Saturday morning at around 9:30am and hand them out along with coffee and donuts. To my surprise, around 15 of you showed up that morning- did I say it was Saturday morning and it was really cold? To me, getting 15 twenty-something’s out of bed, on the only day many of you can sleep in is a miracle... slightly behind the water from the rock event.
Upon arriving, we picked out our spot, set up some tables, spread out the gifts coffee and donuts and waited for God to move- to draw the people of Chesea Village to us. Guess what? It didn’t happen- after waiting in the brain numbing cold for 30 minutes without giving away one gift or donut we thought about going somewhere else ( I thought about never doing an outreach again and asking myself questions like- whose idea was this anyway- it couldn’t have been mine).
We all talked it over and decided to, as a last resort, move to a different spot in the village and make it more of a mobile operation. I’m excited to say, it worked- we had to be more intentional, and a little bit more aggressive with getting the word out- like going door to door and stopping people as they walked and drove by, but it worked. The people of Chelsea village were so accepting and loving, even the ones that we woke up. I still think many of them are stunned as to what happened that morning. They’re still trying to figure out what hit them. Was it God, or just a bunch of crazy people? I can hear them now talking around the breakfast table. "They had a clown at Christmas, who dresses up as a clown at Christmas time. Why didn't they have a Santa or at the very least have someone dress up in red and green- they're loco."
To spare you everything that happened, I wanted to share one story of the event. As we were searching for those we could bless with a few gifts, coffee and donuts, a couple of us came across a lady and a son. After giving them a gift, the lady said that there was a neighbor who was going through some very hard times. She went on to say that they didn’t have a Christmas tree and she wasn’t going to be able to buy any gifts for her three small children. We decided to load up a big box of gifts for the lady to deliver to the neighbor since the neighbor wasn’t home at the time. As we delivered the gifts to the lady, she was on the phone with the neighbor, crying.
We got a letter from that lady today thanking us from the bottom of her heart. She said that when she delivered the gifts to the neighbor, the look in her eyes said it all- She also said there was a Christmas Tree on her doorstep – I don’t know if one of us did that or not. But either way, we had a huge part in saving Christmas for this family- I know it’s not about the gifts, but my prayer is that God will use those gifts for this family as a bridge to Him.
What a learning experience for all of us to go through. We had a plan, we thought that all we needed to do was set up shop and people would come. I mean, who wouldn’t- we had neatly wrapped gifts, hot coffee, donuts... a clown (good job Rick). It wasn’t until we packed up our spread, our neat arrangement of things, moved a little closer to the people, that we were able to minister to them. I believe our first run at it didn't work because God wanted us on their doorsteps, in their homes- having conversations, pouring their coffee, so they could see and experience more of Him and so we could see and experience more of them.
Sometimes we think our little venues, our programs, our church is it. But maybe sometimes God wants us, no needs us, to pack it up and move. It's hard to pack up and move our stuff isn't it. It’s amazing what God can do when we just move.
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