Handing Out Cold Water

The county fair was this past week and we were under a heat advisory the entire week - at one point hitting 106 degrees. Because our church wanted to reach out and help we loaded up in cars, vans, and trucks with coolers filled with ice and cases of water and we passed out more than 1,000 bottles to fair goers!

We tried various methods of distributing the water until we found out what would work best. First we reserved a booth space and sat down at a table hoping to reach those that walked by and also provide a "water station" where people could come to throughout the week and grab a bottle of ice cold water. This worked well, but we weren't reaching enough. So, we changed our method a bit and located ourselves in the bed of a truck just outside the barn where the livestock shows and auction happened and we passed out bottles of ice cold water to those that went in and came out. This method was working better, but we still wanted to reach more. So, keeping both of these previous methods intact, we took to the ground, walking with coolers, pulling wagons, and asking anyone and everyone that was walking, sitting, standing, riding, sleeping, showing, judging, buying, or selling. We handed out water to children, teens, adults, and the elderly.

As we walked the fairgrounds this afternoon the though occurred to me that our process of water distribution and our method of handing out water can be applied to churches too. If we were just to sit in our church building praying for people to come by and worship God with us we might wait a long time and we may never reach the very people that are in need of Him the most. Yet, when we hit the streets, sharing the love of Christ through our words, actions, and lives and sharing the Gospel message of Jesus as He has called us to, we see the influence of our service and we reach the people God desires for us to reach - connecting them to God and teaching them about His love for them.