Oreos
You can view pictures of this group in the slide show on the main 30 Day/$30 page
The Oreo family: Steve Hohl, Bryan Axe, Michael Rice, Luke Davis, Riley Hicks…with a special appearance by Kristina Hohl, Morgan Siebert, Kloie Hohl, Savanna Bader, Denzel Bader and Mary)
We first started out with the laundry mat. We saw a pastor from Calvery Baptist Church.
There was a man who said that his youth group was looking for something to do to impact the community and now he was going back to his church to tell them how powerful the laundry mat idea was.
We met a man named Thomas. When he first entered the laundry mat he was approached by our group and he said “no” that he did not need any help with his laundry. He was rough around the edges and seemed bothered that we came up to him. After some time Thomas came up to Steve and Bryan and apologized for blowing the students off and not allowing them to help him. Thomas further explained that as he was watching the kids go to other people to offer monetary support and prayers that he felt that their money would go to better use on someone else as he was not suffering the way that others were. Thomas asked many questions about LifeChurch and then told us that his sister just moved to Canton and that they were thinking of going to church. He then said that he would love to bring his sister to our church where the kids are out doing this sort of ministry.
There were some other times when maybe our approach could have been better. There was a lady that came in to see if there was a wait at any of the washing machines, when she saw that she could get right in she went back to her car to grab her laundry. Needless to say she had 3 teenage boys and 1 preteen girl stealthly follow her and once they arrived to her car (unbeknowst to her) they shocked her by asking if they could help carry in her laundry. Once the surprise wore off she gladly accepted their offer and they were able to make nice conversation with her.
In the laundry mat there was a mother that told Steve and Bryan that the money that the students reimbursed her with today allowed her to buy a $5 pizza to feed her kids for that night. They otherwise were going to be hungry because their clothes were so dirty that they had to be cleaned and that meant no money left for food.
We also decided that the bell ringers for the salvation army are out there in the freezing cold for many hours at a time, so we thought that it would be nice to show them our gratitude and serve them while they were serving. We purchased hot chocolate, cups, lids, straws and napkins and set out to make their day a little bit warmer.
We found one man that said that he has been a bell ringer for 17 years and that this is the first time that anyone has done any act of kindness for him while he was serving.
We met and prayed with another man that told us that he spends his weekends bell ringing from 9am until 10pm.
All of the bell ringers that we came across were so thankful and appreciated it so much they would ask us why we were doing this and that gave us a chance to talk and tell them a little bit about our faith.
We also came across a couple that looked cold, sitting and waiting for a cab with all of their groceries on a bench. So we pulled over and offered them some of the warm tasty beverage and prayed with them.
