72 Hours without compromise - Szolnok

Today I took part in an ecumenical program that focused on youth serving the community called 72 hours without compromise. It's an event sponsored by the Reformed, Lutheran, Evangelical churches and the city hall to encourage the youth to serve and help out around the town and learn to work together for a noble purpose. I heard about the event from my Methodist pastor friend and decided to tag along today. It ended up being a great idea and I even think I discovered a great way to reach out to the community through it.

I met up with some youth from the Methodist church and we headed into the town center with a bag of toys, a cd with a children's movie, and a porcelain souvenir to give to any children we found. In general, the idea was a great one and a lot of kids were very happy. Everything went really well and we were given permission to hand out the toys inside of the local mall when it started raining. The interesting thing to me, though, was how most people honestly couldn't believe we just wanted to give something for free. For the most part, people would take the free toy, but not until asking four or five times what's the cost. It took us only about 2 hours to hand out all our toys, but quite a few families left without one because they simply couldn't accept that we didn't want something from them. The worst part was that their kids missed a chance to be blessed because of their parents' distrust.

It got me thinking about the Gospel and how so many people don't want to accept it because they can't believe it is free. That is so sad because it is, but because we have been so burned by the bad examples of this world, we don't trust anything that isn't free anymore. Because of this, we walk past the offer of eternal life, expecting to be tricked, and in the process deny ourselves the joy and pleasure that God has in store for us.

All of this gave me a great idea for an outreach opportunity coming up though. Every December 6th, Hungary celebrates Saint Nicholas day. This is similar to how most Americans celebrate Christmas in that the children receive toys and candy in their shoes overnight. My idea is to hand out candies and small toys to kids on the day along with hot tea for the parents and a tract explaining the Gospel as well as information on local churches they can attend, if they are interested. I am going to approach the local churches and ask if they would like to participate in this idea. If not, we will do it alone. I think it is a great chance to show unity in Christ though. We'll see how it goes.