Where Do You Want to Go Eat?by Deb Douglas
By the time a group decides to eat, it can be closing time for many restaurants, and once again your group of friends find yourselves eating at Waffle House or IHOP. Over BLT’s or harvest grain pancakes, you have the opportunity to chat with a group of forgotten people: nighttime employees.
Reaching out to this group of people may mean you have to change your habits to make late night dining a regular habit. How can you minister to this group? Ask questions about the person such as, “What’s your story?” Be willing to listen and remember. Let your conversation be your guide for ministering. Don’t forget to tip generously!
Deciding how you spend the limited resource of time reaching out to others can rob you of time spent actually ministering. Need ideas to try? Think about these ideas, and see if others come to mind.
Women who are deployed need encouragement and conversation! Chatting on Facebook is a great way to do both! Begin with conversation, find out what items they need to make their life easier while away, send care packages, and include notes of encouragement.
Encouraging one woman can impact her entire unit. If you do not know any deployed persons, email chaplains to volunteer for an encouragement ministry. (Contact chaplains by going to namb.net. Click on Prayer Requests to find links to chaplains,)
Convenience store workers spend long hours answering questions, selling soft drinks, and being bored. Most work through holidays and weekends. Choose a convenience store near your work or business and create a habit of stopping by often in less busy hours.
Make a point of engaging the clerks in conversation. As you build a relationship, bake cookies or cupcakes, stuff a gift bag with items such as a devotional and Bible, write an appreciation card, and invite the workers to a church event.
Female entertainers may seem an unlikely addition to this list, but these women see no escape from their lifestyle. Ministering to women at “strip joints” takes a little research, but these women need to know they are loved by Christ.
Start by praying for the women. Then, call to find out when you can by a gift basket of goodies. Include lotion, hand soaps, homemade goodies, gift cards for local restaurants, invitations and tickets to women’s events at your church, and books. As you feel led, send more things. Ask the manager for permission to provide a light snack or meal.
Buses come into Bossier City, Louisiana, and other towns with casinos daily. The buses are filled with gamblers, mostly senior adult women. These women became gamblers not because they wanted to lose their life savings, but because they are lonely.
In all towns, there are women who live alone and have nothing to do during the long hours of the day; they hop onto a casino bus because the commercials show women having fun. Befriending a lonely woman is easy. Invite her to join you for coffee or a women’s event at your church.
So, where are you and your friends going to dinner tonight? Feel like stopping by a convenience store? Or asking a lonely woman to join you? Ministry opportunities are as plentiful as places to eat, just open your heart and eyes to the forgotten people and start talking!
Deb Douglas looks for ways to impact the lives of others in Bossier City, Louisiana.
|
