Calvin's Youth Group and the Love Bomb (June 4)

On June 4th, 5 youth and 5 adults from Calvin took some time to bless people in our city.  We did something called The Love Bomb.  a.k.a Love this City.  The idea wasn't mine.  It started in Aukland New Zeland many years ago.

Two groups fanned out and blessed random people.  The pics and short video explain how this works.  

We gave away carnations and chips and gum to the general public. 

To people who serve our city, like bus drivers, police, and paramedics, etc. we substituted fruitsations for the carnations.  Each packet had a card explaining what this was about and my contact info.   

This group spent about an hour at the Baseline Bus station.  When a bus approached Elizabeth, Emma and Katrina would be the last to board.  

And they would each give the bus driver one item and thank them for serving our city. Brought a smile to each driver's face.  One driver said it was the first time in 16 years that he had been thanked for his work.  

We also blessed people that were just waiting for the busses.  One person texted me that evening saying we had made his wife's evening.  What makes this sort of thing unique is way it's done.  The three pronged approach.   After the third time, you get a great big smile from most people.  : ) 

We then moved to a mall and blessed some employees at various stores.  Again, the same person getting 3 different items, in the span of 15 - 30 seconds, usually  : )

The last was always the carnation. 

 A nice ending touch.  : ) 

Here's a brief clip of how it works.  Normally we space it out a bit more, but these three decided to just move things right along  : ) 

We had lots left when we were done the evening so Katrina suggested we just place items on the cars in the parking lot.  

WHY NOT!  : ) 

All in all it was a great evening.  We learned lots about ourselves and others and it was neat to just touch lives in ways we may have no idea about.  

We will be doing this again July 27th 

We know this isn't everyone's idea of a good time, but if you want an easy way to do outreach with no gimmicks or pressure this is one sure way to give it a try in your youth group or church.

I just received a text the other day from someone who finally had to discard their carnation and was sad to do so because it reminded her each day that there were people in this world that were able to share love of self and of God with others.  Something she needed to be reminded of that evening we went out.