You've been "RACK'ed"!

What?? Sounds painful!  Not really.  Our Wednesday morning bible study finished up for the year last week.  Today we decided to meet for lunch together.  But first we decided to go out and do some random acts of kindness...or in this case Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  Get it?  :)  Heather whipped up some yummy hot cocoa and cider.  The plan was to hand it out to the Salvation Army bell ringers.

I also made up some cards with a couple of verses on it and Christmas greetings.

We stuffed these in ziploc bags with $1 or $1.25.  We planned to tape these to vending machines.  So we loaded up our loot and headed out in Stevie the Dodge Journey.  (Car's name courtesy of Lisa Herrera.  Bonus points if you can make the connection)

Our plans hit a minor snag when we realized that there were NO bell ringers out at 10 am on a Wednesday morning.  So our 1st stop was at Wal-mart.   Carol and I taped some baggies to the vending machines and also left a hand written post-it note on the mirror in the ladies restroom that said, "You are special....You are beautiful!  Merry Christmas!"  While out in the parking lot Sarah & Heather left notes on car windows with Christmas greetings and a candy cane.

 Next stop...Meijer (still trying to find bell ringers....our hot cocoa is not so hot anymore!)  We ended up stopping a cart boy and offering him cider.  He looked at us funny and said that he was good.  We explained what we were out doing and that we couldn't find any bell ringers.  We changed our offer to some cocoa and that did the trick.  We left him sipping some lukewarm cocoa looking slightly bewildered!   Who knows where we would end up!

We spent the next hour trekking around Avon.  We left notes with money tucked into the toy bins at the dollar store for a kiddo to find.  We handed out quarters to Aldi's shoppers for their carts.  I left one of our baggies with the cashier at McDonald's with the instructions to give it to the next person who came in an ordered a coke or coffee.  (More slightly confused looks!)  We pulled up to a construction worker handed him a note and told him to have a soda on us.  We held doors open for people, returned carts, and had a wonderful time zipping around the town with Christmas songs playing on the radio.

A soda, a candy cane, a quarter, a smile.....it may not seem like a lot.  But to a world where evil and senseless violence exist (as we have so painfully been reminded this past week) that's full of people who need to know there is a God who loves them it may be just what they needed.  God's word says that we are to be a light in a dark world.  It's not hard...it just requires that you go. :)  Merry Christmas!