Mission at 5 Real
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008By Rev. Elizabeth Steele
You never know who will walk into a church office, or what pain and suffering they will bring with them. One morning it was two very polite young men from the neighborhood. Their grandmother had died unexpectedly in another state. Could they hold a car wash in our lot to help pay for the funeral and to help pay for the family here to get to the funeral. I talked with them for awhile, explaining that the parking lot had just been redone and we’d been told not to have car washes on it for awhile. We began to explore other ideas. Hilari quietly went back to her office. After a few minutes she returned. She’d been calling local businesses where she’d seen funeral car washes in the past. Unfortunately, none of them could help either. We continued talking. They called home and explained what was happening.
Suddenly one of them came up with an idea. Would we let them hold a lemonade stand? Sure. We asked them to put it in the far corner away from the kids. It would also mean more traffic going past. They left, shaking our hands and thanking us. One commented, “Not too many people take teenagers seriously.”
A short time later, we saw them walk by with a grocery sack in hand. Shortly after that they and a young woman (sister or cousin?) were outside selling lemonade. It took a lot of determination to stand in the sun, holding signs explaining they were doing, trying to raise the money. It was a hot day, but even so I wondered how they would do. When I went to check they were enthused and felt things were going well. They even brought lemonade to those of us in the office.
The next day the family was off to the funeral, buying gas money with the funds from the lemonade stand. Just because of our location, we had helped, if only a little.
