A trucker bible, cookies, and Starving Jesus

So, the Starving Jesus guys were in town today, and graced us with their presence in eXchange by giving a (partial) presentation. Their gig usually runs about 45 minutes, but we had to cut them short (to about 20-25 minutes) due to tonight being a Crash Sunday. We basically “fast” from church, and go out into the community and serve.

Anyway, JR Mahon and Craig Gross (Craig’s pic is to the right, JR’s pic is in the next paragraph) came up on stage and knocked it out of the park by really laying down what it means to serve God. Their tagline for the Starving Jesus tour is “give. fast. pray.” which is great, as that’s really what it’s all about. They talked for about 30 minutes, then we busted out three worship songs and took to the streets. Starving Jesus also has a goal of getting 500 commitments for Compassion International (Wendy and I picked up a packet tonight; can’t wait to get that started!) and they were at 410 or so when they rolled into the big T.H. I’ve e-mailed JR asking how many they got from tonight; I’ll post that number once I get it. [UPDATE: 15 sign-ups total.]

What felt good was that the stuff JR and Craig talked about in regards to serving the community, eXchange already has a pretty decent handle on. BUT, it never hurts to hear from a couple guys who not only talk the talk but walk the walk as well. It can only serve as a real reminder of what Christ calls us to do.

Wendy and I took to Brazil and were distributing cookies to the employees of the truck stops. We hit the Road Ranger first, told the lady running the cash register how much we appreciate the employees working on a holiday weekend, and presented a foil-wrapped plate of homemade cookies. She was very appreciative, and as we walked out, she turned to the other employees working behind the counters and said, “hey everybody, COOKIES!” Rock on.

Next we jumped over to the Williams station and talked to the manager. We told her also how much we appreciated them working on a holiday and how working in a truck stop can, well… suck. Plate of cookies slid her way. The best word I can think of describe her response was ‘astonishment’. She was truly taken aback that anyone would take the time to say, “hey we care about you; here’s some chocolately goodness to prove we’re not full of it.” She gave us a ‘bless you’ as we left.

We also tried handing out a trucker bible to a trucker, but that was a total failure. Okay, not total… we got to meet Joel from Tampa and learn about his four kids. Good job getting us to be the guinea pigs Fox.

All in all, it was a great night, and as far as the eye could see eXchangers were getting in on the goods and putting their money where their mouth was.

JR, Craig, thanks for helping us feed Jesus just a little tonight.

crash, service, outreach, ministry, starving jesus, jr mahon, craig gross, xxxchurch

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