All I can say is “Wow!” A great time was had by all.
Some Technical Aspects:
We had a few dozen involved in a combination of preparing, packing and giving away the burgers and hotdogs. We cooked the product in phases, partly because our large grill could only do about 50-75 at a time, but partly because this approach allowed us to keep things warm as we made them and wrapped them in thermal packaging as soon as they came off the grill. Our system worked out well. We used medium-sized coolers for storing the burgers and dogs. Those maintain temperature whether warm or cold. Teams went out with a medium sized supply of burgers and dogs, gave those away, then either returned to home base or had someone bring them a fresh supply. Our team of four went through about 120 sandwiches between our first time out and our resupply time.
Responses & Discoveries:
At first, people were a little timid. That might have been partly due to our timidity (I personally wasn’t timid since I had done things like this many times before but some of our people hadn’t done much outreach door to door like this and were intimidated). Also, we started a bit after 11:00 AM – not quite yet the lunch hour so perhaps people weren’t yet hungry. Before long our people got into their stride. We started in an area we felt led to go to that was overtly more economically depressed.
The responses we received were interesting and varied. About 80% of the houses we went to gladly receive what we had to give away. I found that as soon as they opened their door, even before we said anything, the expression on their face made it clear they were “open” and pretty much determined whether they would receive from us. Those same people seemed to be spiritually open. When we asked if we could “bless” them they inevitably said yes – meaning we could pray for them momentarily. Numbers of those we prayed for emoted as we prayed – they teared up, or became choked up. It was interesting how many we ran into who were facing impending surgeries and they expressed concern about those outcomes. Those encounters became prayer times with person after person. It seems like God used our presence as an excuse to jumpstart something with those people.
One team went to a particularly challenging trailer park in the city. The first few places they came to didn’t respond to the knock on the door. When they got to the third place the door opened, then the first two places opened up and asked them to return with food. Before long they were circulating throughout the park with burgers and dogs to all the residents. The opening line was the same for everyone – “How many would you like?” – “Like what?” – “Burgers or dogs? We have plenty. We made them just for you – to show you a little bit of God’s love.” – “Well, in that case, I guess I’ll have a few of each. They are free aren’t they?” The conversations went from there. Literally, everyone, we talked to – several hundred people – was open to receiving a blessing in the form of a 10-second prayer.
