Day 10: Free Oil Change - 30 Days of Kindness

Free Oil Change was Day 10 of 30 Days of Kindness, and for this act of kindness we got together with friends, looked under some hoods, kicked some tires, and worked with wrenches on a sunny March day. It was good day to change some oil.

This was an event that I really looked forward to, it was our most expensive 30 Days of Kindness project that I had planned. This was not my first oil change rodeo, I interned at a church in Missouri that hosted a free oil change for single moms, I remember seeing a lot people blessed by that event and I wanted to bring this to Oneonta and bless not just single moms, but everybody in the community!

My expectations were high. Who wouldn't want a free oil change? I had 2 cases of oil and dozen 5qt. jugs ready to go. I also had a table full of tools and our meeting room cleaned up and loaded with snacks. The kindness calendar was mentioned in the newspaper, advertised on Facebook, flyers were hung up in storefronts, signs were made and displayed, and I even passed out over 100 calendars, being sure to point out the big oil change event. Expecting there to be a line of cars, I even put extra time into recruiting volunteers and had 8 helpers standing by--not bad for a church of 4 people!

We had 2 cars show up to take advantage of the Free Oil Change. Yep, two. I don't get it. It's a need that is relevant to every driver, and it will cost a person at least $35 to have their oil changed at the shop. Part of me thinks that if I sat out front all day with a sign that said "Free $20 Bill." I would maybe have 2 people take me up on my offer.

Perhaps this act of kindness was too big, too generous, and such a foreign idea to Northeasterners that nobody thought that our offer was serious. I should not be surprised by this, after all, people turn down the free gift of God's big love everyday. Now granted, a generous oil change is not on the same level as God's gift of salvation, but I did notice one similarity, and that is, when I invited people to the Free Oil Change, I had many people straight up tell me, "I would feel too guilty to accept that."

How many people miss out on God's love simply because they don't feel like they deserve it? Meanwhile, God is pursuing after lost souls with the tenacity of a good shepard searching for his lost sheep, or a poor widow turning her house upside down looking for her lost coin. I was pretty close myself to dressing up in a costume and dancing around with a sign to get people to pull in, that is how badly I wanted to share God's love with this outreach.

I may not fully understand why more people didn't show up, but we gained some valuable insight into reaching out to our local community, and you can bet that we will try it again, except, for this next time we will buy less oil. I don't believe the event was a failure, I got to return the extra oil and use the extra food for the Free Haircut outreach that we had the next day, and we were still able to bless several people.

The biggest blessing came from our team of volunteers. A few of the helpers pulled up their own cars and we changed each others oil. There was one young adult helper who had never changed his own oil before, the men helping were quick to teach him this life skill and walk him through the steps as he changed his own oil for the first time in his own car, all while his girlfriend visiting from out-of-town proudly watched.

I also got to change the oil for a neighbor who lives a couple of houses down. This is someone that I have seen walk by my house for 3 years but I've been unable to have a descent conversation with until now. And there was another neighbor who blessed me by using his snow blower to clear the snow off my driveway while I was getting set up. Everybody that volunteered seemed to enjoy themselves, and there is a valuable male bonding experience that happens when you get enough dudes holding wrenches.
 
We still have 20 acts of kindness left to go, and if I could get on a megaphone and say anything to Oneonta NY, my message would be, "Oneonta, we are doing this for you! This is a free gift. We love you. God loves you. You deserve these gifts! Don't believe any lie that would try and convince you otherwise."