Day 13 of 30 Days of Kindness was Battery Giveaway, and for this act of kindness the
experience was both positive and negative (battery joke).
We have done several giveaways with our previous acts of kindness, but this was our first door-to-door giveaway. The idea here was to visit people’s home and give them a small free gift that they would find useful, and it seems like everybody uses batteries.
I loaded up a basket full of 4 different types of batteries and ventured into new territory for The Redemption Movement, Oneonta’s Center City. This neighborhood is Oneonta’s most high profile neighborhood because it lies directly between the downtown and the two colleges. It has some of the cities biggest, oldest, and most well kept homes, sitting alongside other big old houses that have been divided up into student apartments. Oneonta’s Center City is truly a neighborhood of diverse residents which is one aspect about Oneonta that drew Lauraand I to it.
Laura had to work, which meant that I was flying solo for this one. This was probably for the best since it was cold and raining. With an umbrella in one hand and a basket of batteries in the other, I set out. In the first hour I was actually met with a lot of rejection. Not so much the mean kind of rejection, but more like the kind where people tell me, “We already have enough batteries,” and then quickly shut their door.
My approach was not overbearing, I simply stated, “Hi. My name is Kaler. I am from The Redemption Movement and I am going door-to-door giving away free batteries as an act of kindness to show God’s love.” I would then hold up the basket and offer them free batteries with a smile. I was a little confused at the lack of response; could it really be every home owner is sitting on a giant stockpile of batteries?
My confusion was compounded when I had a police officer stop me because of a complaint. Seriously. Knowing the ridiculousness of the situation, I answered every one of the officer’s questions with a big smile on my face, I even offered him some batteries. I was more than happy to tell him about everything that I was doing and how much God cares for him, at least someone was willing to listen to me.
After the officer processed my identification and everything checked out, he then reported to the dispatcher in his walkie-talkie, “It’s just a guy spreading happiness and kindness, over.” He let me go and I went on my way. Why I was reported didn’t make sense to me at the time, but it did after I talked to Will from The Breaded Dragon on Thursday. Will is a 20 year old clerk at Oneonta’s favorite comic book store, after cleaning his bathroom as an AoK, Will told me how nice it is that we do this and how tired everybody in Oneonta is of religious people going door-to-door. This would explain why few people would even take the time to hear me out.
I have had religious groups visit my door carrying Bibles and passing out religious tracks. In Oneonta, when the weather is nice, especially in the summer, it seems like I see lots of teams of religious folks going door-to-door wearing suites and dresses and carrying Bibles. Everybody I talk to is sick of this approach. Herein lies the beauty this acts of kindness battery giveaway; people come to the door guarded and expecting a sermon, only to receive a free gift along with a smile and a brief statement declaring God’s love. I think if Oneonta’s home owners were not entirely burnt out from our resident door-to-door religious groups on a mission to convert, then they would be more receptive to my message. Regardless, it is my mission to reach these burnt out people and show them love in the face of suspicion, because in the end, “God is love, and love conquers all!”
After experiencing some rejection during the first part of my mission, I realized that I needed to change my approach with door-to-door giveaways. Many home owners in this neighborhood told me, “Go give it to someone who needs it.” So I did. I headed away from the streets full of large well kept homes and into the northern part of the neighborhood where there are smaller homes and apartments.
Here I received the welcome I thought I would. People were engaging, appreciative, and they took the batteries while asking me questions about the church. I passed out kindness cards and calendars and considerably lightened my heavy basket of batteries (I did feel this AoK in my arms the next day).
I met one college-aged girl who has a heart for ministry and is going to spend her summer in Arizona helping with a church plant, she promised to pray for me. I met another girl who was a part of SUNY Oneonta’s Music Industry Club. She has heard about us from the shows that we host, and told me that she was the one that added our shows to the local newspaper events calendar, and she wants to bring disabled students that she works with to our future shows.
Being a an opportunist, I also passed out calendars to people who had children and told them about our March 22 Parent's Night Out; and if they had a dog barking at me, then I was sure to mention our March 21st dog walking service. After working mainly on the building for the past few years, it feels so nice to have events on a calendar to meet different people's needs that I can tell them about, as well as having a weekly public service that I can finally invite people to.
By the end of the night the rain had stopped, my basket of batteries was much lighter, and I got to tell 20+ people about God's love. All-in-all, meeting new people was a great way to spend an evening. We are now 13 days into this project and I am blown away with how many new people that we have got to meet and proclaim the love of God to.
We have done several giveaways with our previous acts of kindness, but this was our first door-to-door giveaway. The idea here was to visit people’s home and give them a small free gift that they would find useful, and it seems like everybody uses batteries.
I loaded up a basket full of 4 different types of batteries and ventured into new territory for The Redemption Movement, Oneonta’s Center City. This neighborhood is Oneonta’s most high profile neighborhood because it lies directly between the downtown and the two colleges. It has some of the cities biggest, oldest, and most well kept homes, sitting alongside other big old houses that have been divided up into student apartments. Oneonta’s Center City is truly a neighborhood of diverse residents which is one aspect about Oneonta that drew Lauraand I to it.
Laura had to work, which meant that I was flying solo for this one. This was probably for the best since it was cold and raining. With an umbrella in one hand and a basket of batteries in the other, I set out. In the first hour I was actually met with a lot of rejection. Not so much the mean kind of rejection, but more like the kind where people tell me, “We already have enough batteries,” and then quickly shut their door.
My approach was not overbearing, I simply stated, “Hi. My name is Kaler. I am from The Redemption Movement and I am going door-to-door giving away free batteries as an act of kindness to show God’s love.” I would then hold up the basket and offer them free batteries with a smile. I was a little confused at the lack of response; could it really be every home owner is sitting on a giant stockpile of batteries?
My confusion was compounded when I had a police officer stop me because of a complaint. Seriously. Knowing the ridiculousness of the situation, I answered every one of the officer’s questions with a big smile on my face, I even offered him some batteries. I was more than happy to tell him about everything that I was doing and how much God cares for him, at least someone was willing to listen to me.
After the officer processed my identification and everything checked out, he then reported to the dispatcher in his walkie-talkie, “It’s just a guy spreading happiness and kindness, over.” He let me go and I went on my way. Why I was reported didn’t make sense to me at the time, but it did after I talked to Will from The Breaded Dragon on Thursday. Will is a 20 year old clerk at Oneonta’s favorite comic book store, after cleaning his bathroom as an AoK, Will told me how nice it is that we do this and how tired everybody in Oneonta is of religious people going door-to-door. This would explain why few people would even take the time to hear me out.
I have had religious groups visit my door carrying Bibles and passing out religious tracks. In Oneonta, when the weather is nice, especially in the summer, it seems like I see lots of teams of religious folks going door-to-door wearing suites and dresses and carrying Bibles. Everybody I talk to is sick of this approach. Herein lies the beauty this acts of kindness battery giveaway; people come to the door guarded and expecting a sermon, only to receive a free gift along with a smile and a brief statement declaring God’s love. I think if Oneonta’s home owners were not entirely burnt out from our resident door-to-door religious groups on a mission to convert, then they would be more receptive to my message. Regardless, it is my mission to reach these burnt out people and show them love in the face of suspicion, because in the end, “God is love, and love conquers all!”
After experiencing some rejection during the first part of my mission, I realized that I needed to change my approach with door-to-door giveaways. Many home owners in this neighborhood told me, “Go give it to someone who needs it.” So I did. I headed away from the streets full of large well kept homes and into the northern part of the neighborhood where there are smaller homes and apartments.
Here I received the welcome I thought I would. People were engaging, appreciative, and they took the batteries while asking me questions about the church. I passed out kindness cards and calendars and considerably lightened my heavy basket of batteries (I did feel this AoK in my arms the next day).
I met one college-aged girl who has a heart for ministry and is going to spend her summer in Arizona helping with a church plant, she promised to pray for me. I met another girl who was a part of SUNY Oneonta’s Music Industry Club. She has heard about us from the shows that we host, and told me that she was the one that added our shows to the local newspaper events calendar, and she wants to bring disabled students that she works with to our future shows.
Being a an opportunist, I also passed out calendars to people who had children and told them about our March 22 Parent's Night Out; and if they had a dog barking at me, then I was sure to mention our March 21st dog walking service. After working mainly on the building for the past few years, it feels so nice to have events on a calendar to meet different people's needs that I can tell them about, as well as having a weekly public service that I can finally invite people to.
By the end of the night the rain had stopped, my basket of batteries was much lighter, and I got to tell 20+ people about God's love. All-in-all, meeting new people was a great way to spend an evening. We are now 13 days into this project and I am blown away with how many new people that we have got to meet and proclaim the love of God to.
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