“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in…” (Matthew 25:35 NIV)
Turn back the clock to Chocolate Tuesday last year.
It’s funny but there was no grand plan at the time, just a fleeting thought. Remembering the 40acts challenge I’d simply put a bar of chocolate in my pocket ‘just in case’.
It started when I came across somebody selling the big issue in Exeter. We chatted and I offered him a coffee, a pasty and gave him the chocolate. Before I left I prayed for him.
It could have ended there but I decided to share the story with two other people I pray regularly with and said I felt that we should be doing much more.
So the following Sunday morning we headed out armed with a bag full of chocolate, some hot sausage baps and a bunch of socks and just went looking for anyone sleeping rough so we could share what we’d brought and pray for them.
We have now been doing this every Sunday morning since last April, serving well over 120 individuals numerous times. As we saw the needs, we expanded the range of what we give out. As well as the chocolate and socks, we now offer hot food & drinks, water, raisins, cake, tissues and wet wipes, dog food and treats for dogs too. We have handed out sleeping bags, water proof clothes and coats. We have also helped a lady with buying her big issue sellers jacket and started her off with the first magazines to sell and bought magazines for another big issue vendor.
Our original team of three has now grown to nine people. We’ve set up a Facebook page, opened a bank account and are working towards becoming an official community project.
We love what we do, we’re blessed to be a blessing.
And it all started with one chocolate bar.
CHALLENGE:
Giving away chocolate. Maybe it sounds a bit less radical than the last few days. But small, overlooked acts of generosity achieve big things. Today, take a bunch of chocolate bars with you wherever you go – five, ten, or twenty – and fling them, carefree, to anyone you come across.
Contributed by Scott McJohnston - Scott is part of the Bread of Life team. Bread of Life is a personal ministry involving 9 people who all attend the same church in Cullompton in Mid Devon, although this isn’t a ministry run by the church. They operate around Exeter city centre and serve the homeless community wherever they find them, trying to demonstrate the love of Jesus that we have all experienced in our own lives.