Men's Ministry :: MINISTRIES :: New Life Christian Fellowship, Pacifica, California

What do Volkswagens, dogs, a brother in Chicago, and taking the Bar exam have in common? They are simply a few topics of conversation with our guests during the Saturday Men’s Group’s FREE CAR WASH!

You might ask why wash cars? It's simple - In the 13^th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples in an act of humility. He instructs his followers that blessings will come as we follow his example. Today, for better or for worse, cars have replaced our feet as our primary means of travel so why not wash cars as a simple act of kindness to others.

You might ask who, besides my children, would wash a car for FREE. Well the answer is quite simple – Yomi, Tom, Richard, Paul, Jonathan, Harley, Dick, David and Andy.

Why would these simple minded guys wash cars for FREE? Well that’s simple too - because the Lord told us to!

Why would the Lord tell them to wash cars for FREE? To show the world, through FREE acts of kindness, that His love is FREE.

You may simply ask what is the power of FREE? Here’s a simple story shared by one of our group during the set-up time. He received a phone call at work from the local deli that his name had been drawn in their “customer of the week” contest so the next time he came in his sandwich would be FREE. He shared with some coworkers about his FREE sandwich. On Friday on his way to lunch he got his hair cut and told his barber that he was going to get his FREE sandwich. The barber’s reaction was “they really do that?” At the deli’s checkout stand he told them he was “customer of the week” and he walked out with his FREE sandwich. Returning to work he realized he forgot to ask for the sandwich to be heated up so he popped it in the lunchroom microwave. Several others commented on how good the sandwich looked and he told them…you guessed it…the sandwich was FREE. At the end of the day nearly a dozen people heard about the FREE sandwich. The next time someone says let’s go to the deli one of them might say “you know who won a FREE sandwich there last week?” FREE is that simple!

You may ask what does a FREE sandwich have to do with sharing that God’s love is FREE? Simply this – each person who got their FREE wash will tell others and they’ll have to explain why it was FREE. The Lord does indeed works in mysterious ways, as He touches the lives of those who received their FREE car wash.

^{_{Drying a couple of the vehicles...}}

One young woman who came in said that she was on her way home from running errands when she thought about getting her car washed. Upon seeing the signs for our car wash she was stunned to learn it was really FREE.

A gentleman pulled into the lot and asked, "How much does a car wash run these days?" We responded, "Nothing - it's FREE."

"Will you take a donation?"

"No - this car wash is FREE."

Yet another woman asked us, "Why are you doing this?"

"To show you that Jesus loves you."

She replied, "That's just awesome...thank you! Can I get you some coffee?"

"No thank you!" we replied.

Those are but a few of the many conversations we had while washing cars for FREE. Some of you in the “accounting department” are asking “but how many cars did you wash?” We simply don’t know because we didn’t keep count. The proper question to ask is – how many people will our guests tell about the FREE love of God?

Kindness – it’s so simple.

^{Richard watched these dogs while their owners moved their cars to be dried.}

From June 21, 2008: "Kindness - It's So Easy"

"Would you like a free bottle of water?" we asked the young woman as she approached on her bike.

"Sure," she said stopping, "What are you doing?"

"Just showing that God's love is free," was our reply.

"Oh, no thanks," she said, "I'm an atheist". As she rode off we told her that God loved her regardless of her belief.

With a mix of hope and fear, Andy, Harley, Yomi and David had prayed an hour earlier that the Holy Spirit would be with us in the Men's Group as we put into practice the lessons we had learned in our study of Conspiracy of Kindness for the first time. The "conspiracy of kindness" operates on a simple premise: Loving deeds done by unassuming Christians convince more people of the love of God than all the words in the world. During our prayer time concerns were voiced over how people would react or who might see us as we lifted this act of kindness before the Lord.

We soon got our answer.

With a cooler full of water bottles*, a couple of signs offering "free water", and a bowl of water for dogs the four of us spent an hour this past Saturday offering water to each walker, jogger, cyclist, and dog who came along the path in the Quarry. Any fears were allayed when our first offer was greeted with a smile and a thank you from a woman passing by. We immediately gave thanks to God for the affirmation that his Spirit was with us. In our brief hour of ministry we met strangers, neighbors, people from school, and still others from Little League, most of whom accepted our modest gift of a cup of water given in the name of Jesus (Mark 9:41).

How many bottles did we give away? That's not important. What impact do we have on the lives of those we touched? We leave that to the Holy Spirit. Our goal was to be faithful servants of the Lord.

What message do we have to others who want to try kindness evangelism? Andy summed our experience best - "it's so easy."

_{* Each bottle had a card taped to it saying "This is our simple way of saying that God loves you. Please let us know if we can be of more assistance" and on the back is information about New Life.}