A few minutes after my thoughts of going in, this beat up old jeep pulled in and out came a mom, dad, and their two little girls. You could tell by their car and their clothes (or lack of, i.e. jackets) that they didn't have a whole lot of money. The little girls went CRAZY looking at all the pumpkins, holding them, kissing them, etc...it was so cute! But the parents remained hesitant to look and finally the dad had worked up the nerve to come and ask me how much the pumpkins were. Normally we price them according to size but this year we decided we wanted it to be by donation only, so after telling the dad that he could get whatever he wanted and give whatever he wanted the parents whole persona changed. The parents were running around with their kids, taking pictures in the wood cutouts (don't know the name for these) and laughing and cutting up like they had never seen pumpkins. It truly warmed my heart, but it was toward the end of their stop that the door was opened. The dad came up and asked me what kind of church we were and what we believed and there I began to witness to him and invited him to our church's celebration we're having this afternoon! I don't tell you this story to say, "look at me...I witnessed," but to say that sometimes we lose sight of why we do the "church things" and think that doing something as small as working the pumpkin patch couldn't/wouldn't open the door for us to share God's love with someone. It's in times like Wednesday night that I continue to thank God for his faithfulness and love toward us. That is one night I don't think I'll ever forget and you can bet I'll be looking for that family today at our church celebration!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
All it takes is a pumpkin...
So as I mentioned in Part 1 of my blog post, this is the post that will warm your soul. Wednesday night I had signed my 6th grade girls up to help me work our church's pumpkin patch. This is something I look forward to every year and instead of doing it by myself this year, I decided it'd be a good idea to share this night with my middle school girls. One thing my youth pastor ALWAYS taught me was to be a servant and sometimes I let my selfish, lazy side get in the way, but I really try to serve others so I wanted to put that into action with these girls. Because the shift started earlier than small group, I went out there with plans that once youth started the girls would then be walked out to me and away we'd play, serve, and be silly. Well, let's just say that God had other plans. Now, I say I love the cold, but that's only when I have the proper attire on. Wednesday there was a cold snap and seeing as how I came straight from Leadership Bay, I didn't have time to go home and grab a jacket blanket (or 3)! I was sitting there FREEZING and although a few people came by who were quite nice to talk to, I was continually telling myself I didn't need to be sitting out in the freezing cold and that no one else was going to stop by this late so I should just go inside, right?!...WRONG!
A few minutes after my thoughts of going in, this beat up old jeep pulled in and out came a mom, dad, and their two little girls. You could tell by their car and their clothes (or lack of, i.e. jackets) that they didn't have a whole lot of money. The little girls went CRAZY looking at all the pumpkins, holding them, kissing them, etc...it was so cute! But the parents remained hesitant to look and finally the dad had worked up the nerve to come and ask me how much the pumpkins were. Normally we price them according to size but this year we decided we wanted it to be by donation only, so after telling the dad that he could get whatever he wanted and give whatever he wanted the parents whole persona changed. The parents were running around with their kids, taking pictures in the wood cutouts (don't know the name for these) and laughing and cutting up like they had never seen pumpkins. It truly warmed my heart, but it was toward the end of their stop that the door was opened. The dad came up and asked me what kind of church we were and what we believed and there I began to witness to him and invited him to our church's celebration we're having this afternoon! I don't tell you this story to say, "look at me...I witnessed," but to say that sometimes we lose sight of why we do the "church things" and think that doing something as small as working the pumpkin patch couldn't/wouldn't open the door for us to share God's love with someone. It's in times like Wednesday night that I continue to thank God for his faithfulness and love toward us. That is one night I don't think I'll ever forget and you can bet I'll be looking for that family today at our church celebration!
A few minutes after my thoughts of going in, this beat up old jeep pulled in and out came a mom, dad, and their two little girls. You could tell by their car and their clothes (or lack of, i.e. jackets) that they didn't have a whole lot of money. The little girls went CRAZY looking at all the pumpkins, holding them, kissing them, etc...it was so cute! But the parents remained hesitant to look and finally the dad had worked up the nerve to come and ask me how much the pumpkins were. Normally we price them according to size but this year we decided we wanted it to be by donation only, so after telling the dad that he could get whatever he wanted and give whatever he wanted the parents whole persona changed. The parents were running around with their kids, taking pictures in the wood cutouts (don't know the name for these) and laughing and cutting up like they had never seen pumpkins. It truly warmed my heart, but it was toward the end of their stop that the door was opened. The dad came up and asked me what kind of church we were and what we believed and there I began to witness to him and invited him to our church's celebration we're having this afternoon! I don't tell you this story to say, "look at me...I witnessed," but to say that sometimes we lose sight of why we do the "church things" and think that doing something as small as working the pumpkin patch couldn't/wouldn't open the door for us to share God's love with someone. It's in times like Wednesday night that I continue to thank God for his faithfulness and love toward us. That is one night I don't think I'll ever forget and you can bet I'll be looking for that family today at our church celebration!
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