Have You Ever Wanted to Hide Under a Rock?

Rocky and I decided to join in on one of our church's Wednesday night programs called "Church is Cancelled."The purpose of the class is to meet at the church during the regular Wednesday night church hour and then go out to do service projects in the community. Our "team" was assigned to go into a neighborhood and pass out free ice cream and some flyers about our kids ministry.

About 10 of us loaded up into cars with 2 gigantic containers of ice cream: one Snickers, and one Rocky Road. As we arrived at the neighborhood park and began pulling the ice cream out to load on the cart we heard a strangely familiar sound. It was music that brought us back to our childhood, it was in fact, the Ice Cream Man!! We started scrambling to get out the waffle cones and bowls as fast as we could, so we could beat the ice cream man to the kids. I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. Rocky kept telling me to be quiet, but I couldn't. There was something extremely amusing to me about passing out free ice cream in front of the ice cream man in the name of "ministry." We saw one kid and his mom and swarmed around them trying to make sure we were pursing this golden opportunity. She may have been a little intimidated by our eagerness to make sure she had ice cream and the fact that about 5 people whipped out a brochure for her on our kids ministry.

At this point, I was no longer laughing. I felt really awkward and wished I had stayed home. After all, I was missing the first 30 min. of American Idol Finale for this. Please, someone find me a rock.

After round one at the park, we ventured out to the houses and went door to door to offer ice cream. I told Rocky he better do all the talking. I was hiding behind him, just hoping no one saw me. As we went from house to house, something changed in me. The people who answered their doors were genuinely appreciative of our efforts. Some even indicated they might come and visit our church. We were able to meet the people and just talk with them. One of the ladies I spoke with said she hadn't been to church in 7 years since her grandmother died. I asked her why she hadn't been in such a long time. She said she got really mad at God when her grandmother passed away. Then, she said she got pregnant at sixteen and then pregnant again with twin boys at seventeen and was just mad at the world. She said now that she did want to get all three of her boys in church and that she was really considering coming to Ninth and O. I told her at least we have child care and that would give her a break! I also encouraged her to come and I really hope I see her there. Another man in our group, Jim Meeks, was able to share the gospel with someone. It was wonderful to see the Lord bless our small efforts. I left, feeling so joyful that I had gone and I look forward to the next event. I know God will continue to whittle away at my prideful heart.