Doing One Act of Kindness Every Week!

By Laura Carpenter

In April, we started a weekly Acts of Kindness ministry where we do one church-wide AoK every Sunday. On Sunday mornings, we gather together with a team and venture out into our community, wanting bless the people of Oneonta, NY with God's love. Faithful helpers have been joining us every week, which has been a great source of encouragement, and helped us to reach many more people than if it were just Kaler and I. Here is a kindness report of all the different AoKs we have accomplished in the past 3 months.

Cold Drink Giveaway

This has been a frequently used Aok because it works so well. Passing out cold drinks on a hot summer day is a great way for us to reach 30 to 100 people in just a few short hours. For this project, we made a "Kindness Cart," which is basically a cooler and a whiteboard bungee corded to a dolly. We simply load up our cooler with ice and beverages and then hit the streets of downtown Oneonta, the parks, and even the summer festivals, with a big sign strapped to the cart that says “Free Cold Drinks.” Many people stop us to take us up on our offer, and if they don't see us, then we roll over to them and ask them, "Would you like a free cold drink?"

Hotdog Sack Lunch Giveaway

This is a repeat project from our 30 Days of Kindness Campaign. We cook dozens of hot dogs, pack them up in a bag with chips and a soda, and find businesses with hungry employees. For our most recent hot dog giveaway, we called The Hampton Inn on River Street and asked if their employees would like a free lunch. We told them we had 25 lunches to give away, and they just happened to have 25 hungry employees on staff that were taking a lunch break within the hour. The management was surprised and grateful, and a few days later they walked down the street and personally thanked us.

Funnel Cake Giveaway

This giveaway is a classic Redemption Movement AoK. Passing out funnel cakes always proves to be a crowd pleaser. We've discovered a great park near downtown where there is a lot of foot traffic. People of all ages stop in for a cake and a chat. The last time we passed out funnel cakes we met several families of high school graduates that were visiting the college and the town, trying to select the right college for their kids. We made sure to talk up our town and helped persuade them to pick Oneonta with delicious funnel cake.

During a second funnel cake giveaway, we made free funnel cakes for people who attended a Sunday afternoon rock show that we hosted. Band members and concert goers alike enjoyed having some delicious funnel cake to munch on while listening to some great live music.

Mowing Lawns

An Oneonta elderly couple and a landlord who were crunched for time both appreciated free lawn care. We mowed, trimmed, cut down wild saplings, and collected downed limbs by the curb. A great way to beatify our community and help others.

Scrubbing Stairwells

The Oneonta downtown parking garage has three stories with three separate stairwells. Despite the cities best efforts, these well-traveled stairwells are easily soiled by pigeons, and individuals who confuse the stairwells as a public restroom.With the Oneonta's big 4^th of July celebration taking place in a only a few days, we thought it would be a great time to deodorize the stairwells. We bought some lilac cleaner, bleach, and brushes, and The Black Oak Tavern hooked us up with buckets of water.

With everything in order, we spent a few hours showing Oneonta God's love by scrubbing the stairs, the walls, and replacing the foul smells with pleasant fragrances. This AoK was noticed by a city representative. Moved by our service, he invited us to an Oneonta city council meeting and formally introduced us to Oneonta's civic leaders. The city council was very appreciative, and went on record to ask us, "Are you the couple from the YouTube video?"

Baked Goods Delivery

For both Mother's Day and Father's Day, we delivered homemade cookies and brownies to Moms and Dads in the hospital, to both the sick and the staff. It felt really good to bless those who had to be away from home on these special days. On Father's Day, we didn't quite get rid of all of the goodies at the hospital, so we stopped in at a few bars, a tattoo parlor, and the Oneonta police station and found some fathers that appreciated the food.

Picnic in the Park

This was a fun and relaxing AoK. Friends met us in Neahwa park and we grilled hot dogs, played music and horse shoes, and welcomed passersbyers to join us for some free food. A group of skaters from the nearby skatepark, and a boy with his caretaker stopped by to join us. It was a pleasure to meet them and to share God's love.

It's been a joy to meet so many people doing this ministry. By doing one act of kindness every week, we are starting to see several new people visit our church during our Friday Night Gatherings. As we go out and giveaway food or perform a service project, we are beginning to run into people that we have blessed from a previous act of kindness project, and more people are hearing about our church from this context of community service. We have found this to be a much more powerful and effective way to tell others about the church than by dumping money into traditional marketing.

Doing act of kindness as a weekly ministry adds up. By reaching 10-100 people every Sunday, at a time when most Christians are in church, we are able to meet and share God's love with many people who are in need of a warm smile and a blessing. It's difficult to say how many people we have reached in 3 months, one evidence that we can look at is a box of kindess cards that we bought was depleted within 2 months, and we are seeing our church grow.

If you want to join us for an Act of Kindness Sunday, then check out Friday's post on our Facebook page. This is where you can find details for the next AoK project, or contact us for more information.