Day 4: Free Car Rinse - 30 Days of Kindness

Free Car Rinse was Day 4 of 30 Days of Kindness, and for this act of kindness, the cold from the temperature could not overpower the warmth from our hearts. Winters in upstate New York are long and messy. Whenever it snows, the roads get covered with salt. This is great for traction, but bad for vehicle paint jobs. Salt and slush are caked on cars for 4-5 months out of the year, and it shows with all the rusted out vehicles on Oneonta's roadways. A good car rinse goes a long way at protecting a NY car from rust.

For this AoK, we set up our power washer in front of our building and offered to rinse the salt and Winter muck off people's cars for free. As a bonus, Laura made hot cocoa from scratch and passed it out to drivers as they waited for their cars to be cleaned. The temperature was a cold 25 degrees outside, making the cocoa a nice touch.

Traffic on River St. is slow on Sundays, and even slower when it is cold. We were set up for 3 hours and rinsed off 4 cars. Now, before you call this event a wash (pun intended), let me go into the details. Two of the cars were driven by seniors. Anytime that you do something to help out the elderly, God (who cares for the widows and commands his church to do the same) will bless your efforts.

One lady was 82 and driving a new Chevy that you could tell she was proud of. Her husband cannot do things like this for her anymore because he is legally blind. As I rinsed off her car, she waited inside where it was warm and had a pleasant chat with Laura. I was sure to tell her about the free oil change that we are doing next Saturday.

Cars number 3 and 4 where a straight-up answer to prayer and a testimony to the power of ministering with acts of kindness. The two vehicles pulled up at the same time, they both belonged to a middle-aged couple. The man got out, he was here for the rinse but did not know what it was about. As soon as I told him that it is a new church he replied, "I am looking for a new church." I tried to remain cool, in a county where 61% of the people are unaffiliated with any religion (much less Christianity), I do not hear those words very often.

The couple made their way inside the building and talked with Laura as I got my rinse on. When I got inside I found out that the man is a contractor who has the same days off during the week as myself, and he wants to volunteer his time to help fix up the place. The building remodeling job has been my biggest challenge with this church plant (a complete gutting out of an entire floor). Thanks to YouTube, I have taught myself several skills, and 90% of the work has been done by me, Laura, and a handful of volunteers. I have prayed for this kind of help for a long time. The timing and provisions of God continue to astound me.

As church planters, herein lies the value of acts of kindness; this is the best way for us to meet people and tell them about church and God's grace. We have been frustrated trying to socialize in places like bars and shows because we have found that most people tend to only interact with the friends they are there with (and having to shout over loud music is no fun). Laura and I are very relational, it is even one of our churches values, but we have many friends and coworkers who we care for and have been friends with for years without church, God, or faith ever being discussed.

Performing acts of kindness forces us to get out and meet new people, sets a positive tone for the interaction, disables social defense mechanisms, and is a natural way to bring up "taboo" topics like God and church. We are excited to think about all the new people that we will meet in the next 26 days!

If you would like to join us in meeting new people with an act of kindness, then contact us, we would love to meet you.