[Previous Entry: "The Chain Book"]
[Next Entry: "Helping Mr. Bunny Serve Christ"]
03/22/2010: "The Language of Love"
It was a wet Saturday. It had rained in the area for several days straight and today it was drizzling a little off and on. We had almost canceled the HUG Cookout at Tara Mobile Home Park in Jonesboro, Georgia, but we figured we could put up with a little mud in order to shower a community with love. Another translator was interacting with the crowd explaining to them that we were there simply to demonstrate God's love. With her being exhausted and in pain, they loaded up their car in preparation to leave. She had just
We were blessed with a high number of volunteers who attended the event in spite of the weather. It seems people love sharing God's love with others.
In somewhat of an unusual twist, today we battled a language barrier. Most of us spoke only English but most of our guests spoke only Spanish (Discover Community Bible Church's Spanish ministry). We had invited two bilingual friends to help us with translation. This made the event more of a challenge than many... and a lot of fun. One person who knew no Spanish was walking around saying to the guests “Jesus Christo” (Hey-Zeus Christo - Jesus Christ in Spanish). When he would run across someone who shook their head “no” he would holler for a translator. One of the highlights of the day was watching another member of our group praying over a guest with the translator translating his prayer as he prayed.
As we packed up to leave it was interesting to note how sincere the guests were in thanking us for visiting their community. With many you could tell it really meant a lot to them.
But, as we have discovered, not every touching incident happens during the event. Our facepainter suffers from some serious health problems and is in constant pain. Last year, this same community being the first time she had participated in one of our HUG Cookouts, she had made a special effort to come out for this event. Wrapped up to stay warm she spent the entire event in her chair painting the faces of one child after another. There were so many kids wanting their faces painted that her and her husband had stayed late to finish them up. 
gotten in the passenger seat of her car and her had husband secured the trunk when a car pulls up and a little girl hops out, running up to them. "Can you paint me?", the little girl pleads. The facepainter inquired why the girl did not come earlier. The little girl explained that she had just gotten home and heard about us being there. She remembered getting painted last summer when we were there and wanted to be painted again. The facepainter and her husband unloaded their car and set up again to painted just this one little girl.
It may not seem like much. Two people making a special effort to make one little girl happy. But from this simple act came some unexpected results. After finishing the little girl's face, the face painter felt better than she had all day and her heart was touched by this little girl. In addition, the little girl, for the second time in a single years time, went away with a good impression of how nice these "church people" are. You never know, it could be that one simple act which will have a positive influence on that little girl's entire life.