Matt got a parking ticket and our church changed,
Several years ago he and his wife parked in our draconian downtown to run errands.
They found a parking ticket on their car and Matt had to appear before a judge.
The judge gave Matt a choice: pay a fine or volunteer to “work off” the crime.
Since Matt is retired and already volunteers at a bunch of places, he chose the volunteer hours and the place: the Redwood Empire Food Bank.
Volunteering as “punishment”
Matt thoroughly enjoyed himself volunteering, er, paying his debt to society at the food bank.
He already had a tiny ministry providing food and coffee to day laborers waiting at the side of the road north of town.
The enormous supplies at the food bank, however, opened his eyes to greater possibilities: a food basket giveaway at our church.
He found ready accomplices in Greg and Craig and before tour church knew what had hit, we were giving away 75 bags of groceries every other week.
Having a prophet in your midst will do that to you.
What about the kids?
While praying for ways to expand ministry to our community, several folks, took a look at that food basket program.
They noticed children standing in the cold with their parents every other Saturday.
Our gifted Sunday School teachers had an idea.
Kids Korner began and 20+ children sang “The Hokey Pokey,” danced The Macarena, heard a Bible story, got snacks and worked a craft.
It happened in the half hour it took their parents to stand in line and get their bags of food.
How did a ticket cause prayer?
What has that got to do with prayer for me?
Kids Korner debuted on Helping Other People Saturday.
We have these days several times a year.
Our congregation fans out into our community and serves others. I told them to send me wherever needed.
Sadly, gladly, they needed me most at prayer, so I got the morning shift: 2.5 hours.
I’ve never prayed that long before. One hour, easy. But 150 minutes? Hmmm.
The first two hours I sat in the church alone.
I began with myself– figuring if my own heart wasn’t right before God how would I be able to pray effectively for others?
My own heart took longer to straighten out than I expected . . .
But then I got to pray about the activities, the ministries, the people of our congregation.
Midway through, I remembered a friend stationed in Baghdad and got up to leave his name with the “making cards for people in the military,” ministry.
I could hear the children in the nursery, but the rest of the church was silent–everyone had gone out, most to a local park, to serve.
It was exciting.
More prayer–and thankfulness for that ticket!
By now I was in the rhythm of prayer and the last hour went smoothly.
I prayed through a list of participants and the list of activities
Everyone returned for lunch at noon and we heard about the hard physical labor my brothers and sisters in Christ had put in.
They handed out new assignments for the afternoon and my 92-year-old pal Jo and I visited the local Pregnancy Counseling Center–where we prayed for the ministry.
It was a terrific, encouraging day, and all because several years ago Matt did not put enough coins in the parking machine.
Don’t you love it when God uses the seemingly-inconsequential, to do great things?
The food basket ministry, with fewer baskets needed in this improved economy, continues to this day.
Thanks, Matt!
I had never heard about Matt’s traffic ticket! And David and I have been involved in 2xBlessed for quite a while! Thanks for sharing.