On 9/8/13 we gave our congregation money to go and be generous. We called it a “reverse offering” and our goal was to jumpstart generosity in our community. One-time generosity takes courage and becoming generous requires a change of heart, so we thought we would break down the primary barrier to generosity – feeling like you have money and allow a generous act to change people’s hearts toward generosity. Here are some more of the stories that are coming in:

1. Our workplace has been running at high gear these last 6 days. Everyone was tired and emotional stress levels were running high (including tension between my boss and his wife, who both work in the same office) and we were all dreading having to come in for the extra workday today (Saturday.) We’d talked about getting breakfast burritos for everyone that came in today, and at the end of the day I went to my bosses’ wife who was going to pick them up, gave her the money from the reverse offering, and told her about our goal to make God’s love tangible in our community this week.

This morning her husband, (my boss) came in and gave me a big hug, thanked me for everything, and said he appreciates everything he is learning from me. Later in the morning, when he and I were working together, he asked me what time services at our church were, told me that he and his wife were still working on finding a spiritual community, and said they’d be coming to visit again soon! Amazing to see how simply offering to buy burritos in God’s name inspired the two people who’d had the hardest day on Friday to come in Saturday recognizing a desire in themselves to connect to a church!

2. I gave our envelope to a woman who was in the parking lot of a shopping center in Greeley. She had a sign that said she was a single mom and anything would help. I drove past her and then I thought of the reverse offering envelope sitting in the car with me and I felt prompted to turn around and go back. I handed the envelope to her – she asked what it was and I told her some money and a card that says “God loves you.”

3. We spent quite a bit of time thinking and praying about how God wanted us to use the money from the reverse offering. We had what seemed like a great plan…until I learned about a co-worker who lost everything in the flood. We anonymously gave him the money (and added some to it) along the with card from Emmaus.

4. A story that came in from the Pastor of a Church in Loveland:

I just wanted to share an encouraging story with you. One of our church members was at WalMart on Sunday afternoon when a woman she didn’t know approached her. The woman gave her a business card and a $20.00 bill. She had some nice words and left. Our church member a single mom and has to stretch her income as far as possible.
She was telling me about this story Sunday evening and I asked her what church the lady was from. She thought it was a Lutheran Church, but pulled out the card and it was Emmaus Road. I told her about you guys and she was so happy that someone cared enough to invade her space and come share Jesus in a very tangible way with her.
Tell your people – thank you!