Free...Really...No strings...

Most people at the Gift-wrap outreach last night were open to receiving something for free...Others were suspicious...Others ignored me as I stood there with my sign saying "Free gift wrap and hot chocolate! Just because you're you!". You could tell by the expression that they were certain there was a catch.

There truly wasn't.

We even had trouble deciding if we even wanted to put the Vineyard Westside name on the outreach. So we kept that part small on the postcards that read "Showing you God's love in a practical way". I admit if I had been on the other side of it and had never heard of churches that did this kind of thing, I'd probably ignore me too.

One man you could tell was just broken and hurting. When I said there was free hot chocolate just because he was him he said "I doubt that" and walked away...Then he came back. And he said "Who is doing this?" I told him and he asked where we had services. I told him that too and encouraged him to go get some of that hot chocolate. He turned and headed that way. I watched him as he walked slowly toward it and watched as he let the enemy talk him out of going in. ARGH! But at least he knows where we are in case he wants to visit. He can get free coffee and cookies there! :)

Here are some photos from the fun:




Comments

Kelly said…
I'm sorry we couldn't be there. Sounds like you all had a great time. Well, how could you not, showing God's love to people?
7:37 PM
DanThoms said…
That was a lot of fun wasn't it? Your right though. I was holding the sign for the first hour and people avoided eye contact. Some wouldn't even acknowledge me. As soon as the kids saw the words free hot chocolate though, they were as good as in that tent.
9:32 PM
melanie said…
That was a good experience for me because when we lived in Westside, that exact Wal-Mart was my arch-nemesis. So then, to go back there and SERVE people was humbling.
10:55 PM
Unknown said…
Bob looks a little uncomfortable there. What exactly was Jon doing to him?
7:46 AM
Helen Ann said…
I think Jon was bear-hugging Bob. :) They posed for that shot because I had just missed taking a pic of the real one...dumb batteries dying in my cam!
9:34 AM
Doug said…
Wish we could have been there. This is just the type of outreach that I think would be a lot of fun (and helpful).
9:13 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Relationship vs. evidence

My reply to a blog post discussion with an atheist...I was not attempting to convert him. Just sharing my story.  What a neat discussion...I love it when people can talk about these kinds of things respectfully. How much we can learn from each other when we know that the other person is not going to ridicule or go off or resort to insults. THANKS! For what it's worth, my two cents are below. :) I grew up in Evangelicalism, but my faith became the most alive when I ditched the rules and the play-book of 'making converts' through arguing the Bible and defending God (God doesn't really need me to do that anyway). I made it about 'me and God', not 'me, the rules and how I can convince everyone that my religion is right by explaining the Bible empirically'. You can't do that. The Bible isn't a science book. It is a book of experiences and intepretations of experiences by other people - humans as jacked up and confused by life as I am than I was ...
Read more

Sozo Conference '08

Image
This gets a big Dan WWWWWOOWWWW... What a weekend! It was awesome, it was awful, it was amazing and it was a wild ride! Talk about a roller coaster. But I learned a lot and grew a lot and I am still processing. The Sozo folks from Bethel Church in Redding, Ca. are gifted teachers and administers of emotional/spiritual healing. I went on Friday to be in the "hot seat" for a Sozo with somoene from the Bethel team. This was good because it gave me a chance to see them in action. I was able to observe how they work, see what I did and did not like in how they did things and decide what to do and not do when we are ministering here. It was very confirming to see that they work very similarly to how we do on our Sozo team. YAY! And now, a few pictures from the trip. First of all, I needed a travelling companion. So I kidnapped a Horgan Gnome. He's the one who always moons us as we exit their house. So I called him "Gmoony". Here he is with my kidnapping accomplices. C...
Read more

Alan Alda's seven quick questions

I enjoy listening to Alan Alda's podcast 'Clear and Vivid' . At the end of every episode he asks his guest seven quick questions. Here are my answers: 1. What do you wish you really understood? Why the universe was created in such a way that violent death or death, in general, was required for the sustenance of its living creatures. The food chain - I'm not a fan.... 2. How do you tell someone they got their facts wrong? Generally, if I am having an actual discussion with someone (that is usually not in a FB comment thread) I will ask questions about sources where the person got their information in case I missed something or to decide if the sources are quality. I will present what I understand to be true and why. 3. What is the strangest question anyone has ever asked you? It was more stupid/rude than strange, but someone once asked me why I was here if I didn't want to have children...As if the sole purpose of my existence is to breed. 4. How do you...
Read more