Just want to share something exciting! Met a gentleman, Ameer, this
morning at the AT&T store, Westgate Dr. He is a mgr. there..he is from
Guyana, S. America…where Joy and I went last summer on an AIDS mission
trip. He just came back in Sept. and has been sick since. So, please
be in prayer for him.
The Lord laid it on my heart to send him a fruit basket ,should be
there by 3 today. I called in my order for his basket, and am having
them write the msg. about small acts of love can change the world.
Will send him a card later in the week w/ the Grace card in it. Should
make a wave in the store. There are 2 Muslims that I know of working
there…and I think the other mgr. is also. His name is Maurico, with a
Middle Eastern last name and accent as well, so that would be 3.
Ameer…he may be Hindu or Muslim. I am sure I will find out :-)
Blessings to your day.
Will let you know how things proceed.
Laurie Bryan
I’ve been trying to put together a music studio without resorting to “pirating” audio software. For the most part, I just use free software developers give out but I’m always on the lookout for heavily discounted software.
I frequent ebay and craigslist looking for, what I like to call, “The Score”. This is when someone is selling an item they either do not fully understand the value of, or they simply don’t care. I found one on craigslist and immediately emailed the guy.
We said we would meet at the McDonalds at exit 287 at 8:30 and exchanged no other information, my bad.
I stood in the McDonalds parking lot for a good hour and before I decided to give up I thought I’d check my email to make sure he hadn’t sent a message stating his lateness or some such. So, I plunked down the $3 for wireless access and sure enough, he had been waiting on me to reply before coming out.
So, we exchanged phone numbers and 20 minutes later he came strolling up… holding a burned copy. I spent several minutes trying to come up with reasons why I couldn’t buy his counterfeit copy (the least of which being I already know where to get it for free) and the discussion moved on to other things. We talked about his studio and synths and midi controllers and he briefly mentioned he was only selling copes to make a couple bucks back.
After standing in the freezing cold for an hour and a half, I felt bad for having him drive out there, so I grabbed a five out of my wallet so he would have some gas money money to go back.
He tried to refuse but I handed him the card and told him to read it and do something nice for someone else if he wanted to pay me back.
I am posting this message in the hope that someone will take a chance to bless a stranger.
A few weeks ago, I went to Harris Teeter to buy something. I used the self-checkout lane. As I was completing my purchase on Saturday afternoon, the young lady told me to “Have a nice day, Sir.” Then I remembered what Jerry Daley would do at grocery stores. He would engage people in conversation.
After she said “Have a nice day, Sir.” I asked her how her day was going. She said kinda slow, but after work she was driving to VA. I figured she was going to some football game. I asked her why. She said her grandfather was sick and going to die really soon. The entire family had gathered at the hospital. I asked her if she knew where he was going after he died. She said he was going to heaven.
Looking around and sweating at the same time, I said let me pray for you. So I closed my eyes and started praying. Her reaction was, “Oh my God!” Then she kept quiet and listened. I prayed that the family would remember all the good times of the grandfather’s life. That they would celebrate his life rather than mourn his death. After the prayer, she ran around the counter and gave me a big hug. I bet that was a strange sight. A young black girl giving a old white guy a big hug. Then I remembered what I used to tell the kids at Pritchard and Trinity Court. Love does not know color.
I prayed for that young lady and her visit with her grandfather. I most likely will never see that young lady again. But I’ll see her grandfather in heaven shortly. I pray that I will see that young lady there also.
This morning Lizzie (our 3 year old) and I dropped the other kids at school and headed to Target to do some shopping. When we were checking out, we were talking to the woman who rang us up. She said that she had been at work since 6am doing inventory. She also said that her break was in a few minutes, but she had forgotten her lunch because she was in such a hurry first thing in the morning.
Lizzie and I got our bags and went over to the snack bar, where we bought a soft pretzel and a bottle of orange juice. We walked back to the lady’s aisle and gave her the food, and a Revolutionary Love card. We told her to have a great break.
The look on her face was absolutely priceless. The stunned, thankful, confused look of a recipient of an unconditional gift. You can tell people really aren’t used to gifts without strings.
Those are both such GREAT stories. Simple, natural, and powerful. The power of revolutionary love - touching hearts. Reading your story reminds me that it’s more blessed to give than receive. Sounds like you both left pumped.
Tonight we handed out 5,000+ glowsticks on Franklin Street. We gave out a bunch of candy too, but we learned that glowsticks are far better. :-) It was amazing seeing so many people wandering out around with glowsticks around their necks. There were some really cool conversations that happened too. Small things done with great love will change the world. A bunch of people got a small touch - a little seed of God’s love and care.
Today I attended the Outflow seminar with Steve Sjogren. As the meeting ended, he challenged each person there to go out and “notice” others–slow down, take note of the people around you and ask God for discernment into their hearts and needs and then a creative way to show/share with them His love.
I had planned to go to Trader Joe’s after the seminar, so as I left, I began to pray for God to give me an opportunity to reach out to someone in the store. I was excited (and nervous) for I know that God loves to answer this prayer! :)
As I walked around in TJ’s, I really tried to “notice” the other shoppers, wondering who God might send my way. Over in the corner of the store, where samples are given out, I saw “Mandy” (she had been my cashier before) and felt prompted to go and say hello to her. As soon as I went over, I immediately sensed that something was wrong; she would not look me in the eyes and responded to my friendly questioning with curt, one-word answers.
I knew that she was the one God wanted to bless through me. I began to pray for what to do–“Flowers!” I thought. With my other groceries, I bought a bouquet of flowers for her. I quickly wrote her a note, wrapped it around a revolutionary love car, and walked back over to the sample table.
I told her (laughing nervously) that God thought she was more beautiful and special than the flowers and that He loved her. I also thanked her for her service.
It was so cool to see the reaction on her face. She hugged me and told me that she had been so discouraged all morning, feeling like a “short order cook” after dealing with unkind customers who would get upset when there wasn’t enough food. She also told me that she had lost her job a few months ago and that was why she was working at TJ’s. Then she hugged me again.
God and the way He works is amazing! I felt so alive inside as I left! My prayer is that she really felt the love of God through me! I know I’ll be shopping many more times at Trader Joe’s and can’t wait to see what God might do as I can just show her more of His love each time I see her!
After attending the seminar with Steve Sjogren I was challenged to “notice” people. Last night I went to Boarders book store to study. On my way in, I saw a young man standing with his puppy in one of the grassy divides of the parking lot. I grabbed my bag and started to walk inside to study. As I walked away from the man I realized I had just prayed in the car for the Lord to make a special opportunity for me to reach out and share with someone. I turned around and walked back to the young man. Turns out he was quite friendly, we had a lot in common, and I was able to listen to his story and be a friend. One amazing connection we had was the fact that he worked for the very banking institution one of my dad’s companies used. When I told him my dads name he said, “No way, Steve Grenon! I receive emails from him and am the person primarily responsible for all of his banking paperwork.”
Pretty cool, God orchastrated a sweet connection between me and a previously total stranger.
I too went to Steve’s seminar and went away open to sharing a blessing w/ the people I came across, but strangely people started noticing and blessing me everywhere I went. First Rocky and I went to Taco Bell and a young girl in line in front of me went and got me a straw and then a napkin and cup lid. Then as I scanned the restaurant for a seat I saw and elderly woman w/ a cane sitting alone at a table. I headed over there thinking I might be able to brighten her day w/ just a bit of conversation and she called to me as I came over that her table was the best in the restaurant because the sun was keeping it warm (it really was cold in there) and would I like to sit there as she was getting up to leave. I was laughing as Rocky came over and sat down because I was thinking that God was giving me a little peek at what day brighteners small gestures can be.
You see about 25 years ago in concern about my lack of human contact and ability to evangelize as a stay at home and homeschooling mom I decided to be very intentional in my everyday life and look for ways to bless those I came in contact with. Only very rarely has this included spending any money just because with all the kids there was very little to spend. I’d do things like go to the same checker in the grocery store just so I could build a relationship or go to work out at the same time to see the same people and try to make sure that I showed appreciation for service (including leaving good sized tips). I’ve called stores and told the management how much someones service has meant to me, etc. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to pray with a checker at Kroger in the restroom over her health (she is an elderly black woman) and when I asked her if I could pray for her and she said yes I then asked if it would be ok for me to lay a hand on her back where her pain was - her response was priceless. “sweetie I’m not prejudice in the least go ahead and pray”.
I believe that noticing people and being willing to then do something about what you notice has been life to my soul. The more it has become part of my life (organic if you like) the easier it is and seemingly the more opportunities I get.
There was one more unexpected blessing in store for me Saturday. Rachel and I headed to the mall where a checker went out of her way to figure out how to include a purchase I made in a special sale saving me 17.00. I believe that there is no way that we can out bless God - it returns to us one way or another “pressed down and running over”.
We had fun showing revolutionary love to someone who was living in a tent in the woods behind the church. The teenagers seems to come across these campers and word filters back to the office. Last time we had the police trespass campers. So this time, we tried a different approach.
We had leftovers from the newcomers lunch. We put together a meal for at least four. We wrote a nice note to “to our camping friend” and put $20 in it. I guess the revolutionary love approach works too. I pray the person was touched with the unconditional love of God.
It’s also been fun having the radar to turned on to notice people. One waitress was the owner of a new restaurant. She had worked super hard to remodel the place and turn it into a restaurant. I left her a big tip and a revolutionary card. It was fun blessing her in her new endeavor.
Small things done with great love will change the world!
Here’s a really cool story from someone who received a revolutionary love card. She passed it on to someone else. Here’s her story:
Wednesday night the boys and I were at Italian Pizzeria, our regular pizza joint on Wednesdays for some reason. I was ordering our usual and I saw these 2 college aged guys asking Angelo, the owner, several times the total price of a couple of Hoagies, then some other stuff. In all cases, they didn’t have enough money (they were counting it out). Of course, I’m sure they make it to every happy hour in town, but food…another matter. I remember college well!
I was getting my credit card out and noticed the Pay it Forward card and on a whim, just handed it to Angelo and told him to get the young men whatever they had been trying to order. You should’ve seen the looks on their faces. It was priceless. They couldn’t believe this middle-aged woman with 3 nutty boys was buying their dinner. Then Angelo asked several times, what are you doing, why are you doing that, as if to make sure he heard me correctly. Later he came to my table and said, “you nice lady, you very nice lady” with his heavy accent.
They college guys sat down, huddled their heads together as if to figure out what I was doing by getting dinner and kept looking over at us. We had to go back to the counter a couple of times for our pizza and drinks and one of the guys hopped up every time and said, let me get that for you, ma’am, and brought our stuff over. And when they left, he made a point to come over and tell us goodbye and thank you again, ma’am.
Anyway, what a blessing you gave me and I’m sure those guys thought it was, if not a blessing, at least very cool. The only thing I said to them is just do the same for someone else and pass the card on.
10/18/2008 at 11:15 pm
Hey all,
This is the place to share you story about revolutionary love.
Got it? Tell us your experience. It’s contagious. So pay it forward.
Gave it? We want to hear.
Thanks for taking to time to drop in and inspire us.
Kendrick
10/21/2008 at 10:14 pm
Just want to share something exciting! Met a gentleman, Ameer, this
morning at the AT&T store, Westgate Dr. He is a mgr. there..he is from
Guyana, S. America…where Joy and I went last summer on an AIDS mission
trip. He just came back in Sept. and has been sick since. So, please
be in prayer for him.
The Lord laid it on my heart to send him a fruit basket ,should be
there by 3 today. I called in my order for his basket, and am having
them write the msg. about small acts of love can change the world.
Will send him a card later in the week w/ the Grace card in it. Should
make a wave in the store. There are 2 Muslims that I know of working
there…and I think the other mgr. is also. His name is Maurico, with a
Middle Eastern last name and accent as well, so that would be 3.
Ameer…he may be Hindu or Muslim. I am sure I will find out :-)
Blessings to your day.
Will let you know how things proceed.
Laurie Bryan
10/25/2008 at 9:44 am
I’ve been trying to put together a music studio without resorting to “pirating” audio software. For the most part, I just use free software developers give out but I’m always on the lookout for heavily discounted software.
I frequent ebay and craigslist looking for, what I like to call, “The Score”. This is when someone is selling an item they either do not fully understand the value of, or they simply don’t care. I found one on craigslist and immediately emailed the guy.
We said we would meet at the McDonalds at exit 287 at 8:30 and exchanged no other information, my bad.
I stood in the McDonalds parking lot for a good hour and before I decided to give up I thought I’d check my email to make sure he hadn’t sent a message stating his lateness or some such. So, I plunked down the $3 for wireless access and sure enough, he had been waiting on me to reply before coming out.
So, we exchanged phone numbers and 20 minutes later he came strolling up… holding a burned copy. I spent several minutes trying to come up with reasons why I couldn’t buy his counterfeit copy (the least of which being I already know where to get it for free) and the discussion moved on to other things. We talked about his studio and synths and midi controllers and he briefly mentioned he was only selling copes to make a couple bucks back.
After standing in the freezing cold for an hour and a half, I felt bad for having him drive out there, so I grabbed a five out of my wallet so he would have some gas money money to go back.
He tried to refuse but I handed him the card and told him to read it and do something nice for someone else if he wanted to pay me back.
Cheers.
10/27/2008 at 7:32 pm
I am posting this message in the hope that someone will take a chance to bless a stranger.
A few weeks ago, I went to Harris Teeter to buy something. I used the self-checkout lane. As I was completing my purchase on Saturday afternoon, the young lady told me to “Have a nice day, Sir.” Then I remembered what Jerry Daley would do at grocery stores. He would engage people in conversation.
After she said “Have a nice day, Sir.” I asked her how her day was going. She said kinda slow, but after work she was driving to VA. I figured she was going to some football game. I asked her why. She said her grandfather was sick and going to die really soon. The entire family had gathered at the hospital. I asked her if she knew where he was going after he died. She said he was going to heaven.
Looking around and sweating at the same time, I said let me pray for you. So I closed my eyes and started praying. Her reaction was, “Oh my God!” Then she kept quiet and listened. I prayed that the family would remember all the good times of the grandfather’s life. That they would celebrate his life rather than mourn his death. After the prayer, she ran around the counter and gave me a big hug. I bet that was a strange sight. A young black girl giving a old white guy a big hug. Then I remembered what I used to tell the kids at Pritchard and Trinity Court. Love does not know color.
I prayed for that young lady and her visit with her grandfather. I most likely will never see that young lady again. But I’ll see her grandfather in heaven shortly. I pray that I will see that young lady there also.
10/29/2008 at 10:01 am
This morning Lizzie (our 3 year old) and I dropped the other kids at school and headed to Target to do some shopping. When we were checking out, we were talking to the woman who rang us up. She said that she had been at work since 6am doing inventory. She also said that her break was in a few minutes, but she had forgotten her lunch because she was in such a hurry first thing in the morning.
Lizzie and I got our bags and went over to the snack bar, where we bought a soft pretzel and a bottle of orange juice. We walked back to the lady’s aisle and gave her the food, and a Revolutionary Love card. We told her to have a great break.
The look on her face was absolutely priceless. The stunned, thankful, confused look of a recipient of an unconditional gift. You can tell people really aren’t used to gifts without strings.
Jeff
10/29/2008 at 11:56 am
Ed and Jeff,
Those are both such GREAT stories. Simple, natural, and powerful. The power of revolutionary love - touching hearts. Reading your story reminds me that it’s more blessed to give than receive. Sounds like you both left pumped.
Let’s keep spreading the Love,
Kendrick
11/01/2008 at 12:39 am
Tonight we handed out 5,000+ glowsticks on Franklin Street. We gave out a bunch of candy too, but we learned that glowsticks are far better. :-) It was amazing seeing so many people wandering out around with glowsticks around their necks. There were some really cool conversations that happened too. Small things done with great love will change the world. A bunch of people got a small touch - a little seed of God’s love and care.
11/08/2008 at 9:36 pm
Today I attended the Outflow seminar with Steve Sjogren. As the meeting ended, he challenged each person there to go out and “notice” others–slow down, take note of the people around you and ask God for discernment into their hearts and needs and then a creative way to show/share with them His love.
I had planned to go to Trader Joe’s after the seminar, so as I left, I began to pray for God to give me an opportunity to reach out to someone in the store. I was excited (and nervous) for I know that God loves to answer this prayer! :)
As I walked around in TJ’s, I really tried to “notice” the other shoppers, wondering who God might send my way. Over in the corner of the store, where samples are given out, I saw “Mandy” (she had been my cashier before) and felt prompted to go and say hello to her. As soon as I went over, I immediately sensed that something was wrong; she would not look me in the eyes and responded to my friendly questioning with curt, one-word answers.
I knew that she was the one God wanted to bless through me. I began to pray for what to do–“Flowers!” I thought. With my other groceries, I bought a bouquet of flowers for her. I quickly wrote her a note, wrapped it around a revolutionary love car, and walked back over to the sample table.
I told her (laughing nervously) that God thought she was more beautiful and special than the flowers and that He loved her. I also thanked her for her service.
It was so cool to see the reaction on her face. She hugged me and told me that she had been so discouraged all morning, feeling like a “short order cook” after dealing with unkind customers who would get upset when there wasn’t enough food. She also told me that she had lost her job a few months ago and that was why she was working at TJ’s. Then she hugged me again.
God and the way He works is amazing! I felt so alive inside as I left! My prayer is that she really felt the love of God through me! I know I’ll be shopping many more times at Trader Joe’s and can’t wait to see what God might do as I can just show her more of His love each time I see her!
11/09/2008 at 9:25 am
After attending the seminar with Steve Sjogren I was challenged to “notice” people. Last night I went to Boarders book store to study. On my way in, I saw a young man standing with his puppy in one of the grassy divides of the parking lot. I grabbed my bag and started to walk inside to study. As I walked away from the man I realized I had just prayed in the car for the Lord to make a special opportunity for me to reach out and share with someone. I turned around and walked back to the young man. Turns out he was quite friendly, we had a lot in common, and I was able to listen to his story and be a friend. One amazing connection we had was the fact that he worked for the very banking institution one of my dad’s companies used. When I told him my dads name he said, “No way, Steve Grenon! I receive emails from him and am the person primarily responsible for all of his banking paperwork.”
Pretty cool, God orchastrated a sweet connection between me and a previously total stranger.
—josh—
11/09/2008 at 7:41 pm
I too went to Steve’s seminar and went away open to sharing a blessing w/ the people I came across, but strangely people started noticing and blessing me everywhere I went. First Rocky and I went to Taco Bell and a young girl in line in front of me went and got me a straw and then a napkin and cup lid. Then as I scanned the restaurant for a seat I saw and elderly woman w/ a cane sitting alone at a table. I headed over there thinking I might be able to brighten her day w/ just a bit of conversation and she called to me as I came over that her table was the best in the restaurant because the sun was keeping it warm (it really was cold in there) and would I like to sit there as she was getting up to leave. I was laughing as Rocky came over and sat down because I was thinking that God was giving me a little peek at what day brighteners small gestures can be.
You see about 25 years ago in concern about my lack of human contact and ability to evangelize as a stay at home and homeschooling mom I decided to be very intentional in my everyday life and look for ways to bless those I came in contact with. Only very rarely has this included spending any money just because with all the kids there was very little to spend. I’d do things like go to the same checker in the grocery store just so I could build a relationship or go to work out at the same time to see the same people and try to make sure that I showed appreciation for service (including leaving good sized tips). I’ve called stores and told the management how much someones service has meant to me, etc. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to pray with a checker at Kroger in the restroom over her health (she is an elderly black woman) and when I asked her if I could pray for her and she said yes I then asked if it would be ok for me to lay a hand on her back where her pain was - her response was priceless. “sweetie I’m not prejudice in the least go ahead and pray”.
I believe that noticing people and being willing to then do something about what you notice has been life to my soul. The more it has become part of my life (organic if you like) the easier it is and seemingly the more opportunities I get.
There was one more unexpected blessing in store for me Saturday. Rachel and I headed to the mall where a checker went out of her way to figure out how to include a purchase I made in a special sale saving me 17.00. I believe that there is no way that we can out bless God - it returns to us one way or another “pressed down and running over”.
11/10/2008 at 9:25 am
We had fun showing revolutionary love to someone who was living in a tent in the woods behind the church. The teenagers seems to come across these campers and word filters back to the office. Last time we had the police trespass campers. So this time, we tried a different approach.
We had leftovers from the newcomers lunch. We put together a meal for at least four. We wrote a nice note to “to our camping friend” and put $20 in it. I guess the revolutionary love approach works too. I pray the person was touched with the unconditional love of God.
It’s also been fun having the radar to turned on to notice people. One waitress was the owner of a new restaurant. She had worked super hard to remodel the place and turn it into a restaurant. I left her a big tip and a revolutionary card. It was fun blessing her in her new endeavor.
Small things done with great love will change the world!
11/26/2008 at 12:29 am
Here’s a really cool story from someone who received a revolutionary love card. She passed it on to someone else. Here’s her story:
Wednesday night the boys and I were at Italian Pizzeria, our regular pizza joint on Wednesdays for some reason. I was ordering our usual and I saw these 2 college aged guys asking Angelo, the owner, several times the total price of a couple of Hoagies, then some other stuff. In all cases, they didn’t have enough money (they were counting it out). Of course, I’m sure they make it to every happy hour in town, but food…another matter. I remember college well!
I was getting my credit card out and noticed the Pay it Forward card and on a whim, just handed it to Angelo and told him to get the young men whatever they had been trying to order. You should’ve seen the looks on their faces. It was priceless. They couldn’t believe this middle-aged woman with 3 nutty boys was buying their dinner. Then Angelo asked several times, what are you doing, why are you doing that, as if to make sure he heard me correctly. Later he came to my table and said, “you nice lady, you very nice lady” with his heavy accent.
They college guys sat down, huddled their heads together as if to figure out what I was doing by getting dinner and kept looking over at us. We had to go back to the counter a couple of times for our pizza and drinks and one of the guys hopped up every time and said, let me get that for you, ma’am, and brought our stuff over. And when they left, he made a point to come over and tell us goodbye and thank you again, ma’am.
Anyway, what a blessing you gave me and I’m sure those guys thought it was, if not a blessing, at least very cool. The only thing I said to them is just do the same for someone else and pass the card on.
It was a very cool experience.
11/26/2008 at 12:32 am
The revolution is spreading… Loveland, CO is experiencing it as an epidemic.
Check out this spot on CNN: Starbucks Pays It Forward. (there’s a 30 sec. commercial to intro)