Ask a Question - Get a Flower!

This week is the week of the West Lampeter Community Fair. The fair officially opened at noon on Wednesday and concludes tonight at 10:00 PM.  Since 1991, our church has hosted a Baby Comfort Station ... a clean and comfortable place for parents to bring their babies to change them and feed them. In addition, we also put up some displays that highlight some of the ministries of our church.

This year we added three new features. The first was a small display which listed all the other church sponsored booths and encouraged people passing us by to check them out too. After all, we do not see ourselves in competition with other local churches. So if we can promote what they are doing, so much the better for God's kingdom! The second addition involved the use of QR codes. This matrix barcode includes our church web address. By scanning it with a smartphone, the person is taken immediately to our church's web site! QR codes, initially developed for the automotive industry, are now hitting Main Street America. Once you are familiar with what one looks like (see picture) you will begin to see them ALL over the place!


The final addition this year was a flower giveaway. The flower was a small plastic sunflower which "dances" when placed in the sun (it is solar powered). On the base we placed a sticker with the church's web address, just in case someone was looking for more info on the church. Now to get a flower, you had to ask a question. Last evening was my evening to staff this giveaway. I realized early on that I had to specify the type of question I was looking for (spiritual, God or Bible related question). Before I clarified this, I was getting questions like, "May I have a flower please?" or "Could I have a purple one?" Once I clarified, I got some very interesting questions which included, "Who does God talk to today?" "Why is there suffering in the world?"  "Why did God allow Jesus to die?"  "What was Adam and Eve's last name?" and "Will my pets be in heaven?"  (and many, many more!). But not everyone could either think of a question ... or felt comfortable asking a spiritual type question. When this became apparent I offered to ask them a question (and I promised not to make it difficult! I never had anyone turn me down on my offer!). The question I usually asked first was their name ... followed by this question, "Katie, does God love you?" Almost always I got a "Yes!" in response. To which I then asked "How do you know that He loves you?" This often led to me being able to point them to gospel rich verses like John 3:16 or Romans 5:8. It was great!  (now I know that if you were counting, I often asked three questions and not one ... but the kids and adults did not seem to mind!).



As I was driving home, I thanked God for the opportunity to plant gospel seeds in a lot of minds and hearts. Would you please pray with me, asking our merciful God to water these seeds (and the seeds planted on Wednesday and the additional seeds, God willing, to be planted tonight)? Our desire is to see many come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj