Coffee Give Away

Many of you commented about our church's Black Friday Coffee Give Away. Let me sum it up in one word: AWESOME!

Here's how it worked:

First of all, my family gave so much to the project. My DSs 2 and 3 got up with me at 2:15am to go pick up the coffee from Starbucks. DH and DS 4 met us in the Best Buy parking lot, to fill out our crew of 16 coffee distributors. We set up two carts and a table and moved along the line offering FREE coffee. People were blown away.

We had handed out coffee for most of the people in line when we decided to send a crew over to Circuit City. They handed out coffee there to very thankful shoppers.
It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't hot either. Eager, yet tired, shoppers were happy to have a little warmth at that hour. Some had been waiting in line for two days.

It was so neat to see our crew, which spanned the generations get out there and work together! Along with the coffee, we had connection cards that said, "The Coffee's on us! It's our way of saying 'God Loves You!'" It included the church website. It was simple, yet powerful. And non-threatening.
We even had the opportunity to take coffee down to shoppers at JC Penney at the mall! In just about four hours, we handed out about 375 cups of coffee and talked to many many people. While we were at the mall, the manager of JC Penney came out and said, "Wow! This is so cool! You guys are welcome to do this anytime you'd like."

The general reaction was one of unbelief that it was FREE, thankful surprise, and general gratitude. Some of the conversations were simply amazing from people who were out there receiving coffee. I am continually moved as we are out in the community by the general disbelief that there might just be some people out there being kind for no special reason.

Our next project promises to be just as exciting (without sleep deprivation). On December 21st, we will be assembling "treat bags" during our church service with simple prepackaged snack items in them. Then, we will ask everyone in the service to caravan down to our mall where we will deliver treats to several stores in the mall as a thank you for the hard work of the employees. Currently we have over 300 people who will be receiving a holiday treat from us.

One thing we keep reminding people is that kindness doesn't have to be huge or even cost a lot of money. It's simply getting out there and "being, doing, or giving" to another.

Happy Monday!