RACK part 3 Good news and Happy meals

Christmas eve, eve. Only one more day of advent count down. Yay! Little bit relieved. It has been good, but it hasn't exactly gone to plan... I ended up with a bit of a 'back log' of acts of kindness that didn't get done. We had a little pile of undone goodness to attend to yesterday. Things got a little bit busy, part of the problem with planning activities for the whole month, is you dont really know what is going to be happening on any given day and sometimes we just didn't get to it. The kids didn't seem fussed, (particularly the one about going up to people and singing carols at the shops... WHAT was I thinking with that one??! Esther wouldn't have a bar of it, and I wasn't keen either.) However I did feel it was important to try and do most of things that had come up in the previous days. So I rallied Shane on Saturday, and we all six of us, headed out into the drizzly afternoon. We deposited the 'good news of Christmas' (http://enochwalkedwithgod.wordpress.com/ to read the Christmas message tract I penned) into letter boxes in our neighborhood. We barely got 50m from home when Charlotte decided her shoes were unwearable and we had to have a little battle over wearing them or heading home for new ones, of which neither option seemed acceptable to her. Shane ended up dashing back and returning with some. We had kept going but then turned around when I realised we were missing the 'rack' cards we needed, Zipporah was whining, it was a little rainy, I was getting flustered and not a little affected by the multiple nights with multiple wake ups and not-nearly-enough sleep... But it seemed to obvious an attempt to deter us and try to get us into grumps. So after dashing home on my own to get them, we were on our mission again. We went to the closest bus stop and stuck on to it a 'rack' card with our Christmas 'good news' PLUS a $10 note to sweeten up the whole package! :) (coming by the following day it was a little disheartening to see the money gone and the 'good news' remaining in its place... if only the true value of the message was understood! I hope they felt blessed none the less!) Onward from there to our local shops, Shane had to take Hudson for a trip to the loo... He took the sticky tape and 'good news' and taped it up next to the urinal! I was really hoping he would take a picture of this to show you, but alas, he did not... :)

We had a couple more 'rack' cards with $2 that the kids stuck into a little play car like we did previously. Went into Woolies and bought a coke and chocolate bar which I took to one of my favourite shop keepers! I noticed she was in the store room when I came past, and I was hoping to quickly sneak it in and leave it on the counter next to the cash register , with the 'rack' note attached. But she was turning back as I entered the store so I sheepishly passed over the treats. She was surprised, and seemed very pleased! The ladies in this store are always so friendly and chatty, it was really fun to be able to do this small thing to bless them in return. I headed back to Shane and the kids, who had gone back into Woolies to buy a gift to put under the 'Salvos tree' that was set up in the shop foyer. The kids chose a cool ninja turtles sleeping bag/back pack. Mission complete. We headed back home! Yesterday afternoon I walked down to the pharmacy to get the second round of anti-biotics for the girls (tonsilitis! AGAIN!) While we were waiting for the script, we stuck another 'rack' card with $2 on it to the bus stop out front.

I think the most fun we had with this random kindness thing was yesterday afternoon, after church. We went through the Mcdonalds drive-thru. Fortunately someone came in behind us after we ordered (at first no one seemed to be coming and we were thinking we might have to drive-thru twice!) We ordered happy meals for the kids and then Shane explained to the guy taking orders that we were doing acts of kindness and wanted to pay for the guy behind us.
 "Really?! Are you sure? It could be a lot of money!" Yeah we were sure!
 "AW! That is the sweetest thing. Aw that is so sweet of you!"

He was so sweet, the way he kept saying 'sweet'! Aw! His reaction was really lovely! I was expecting we would pay the bill for the guy behind ($9) and be on our way, before he got a chance to grasp what had just happened. What we were not expecting was for this lovely young man, to get out of his car in the drive-thru and walk over to us, looking all bewildered and happy and thanking us- apologetic for not having something for US!! Heck! Was not expecting that! You really don't have to have anything for us! :) We said Merry Christmas and waved him off and he headed back to the car (you can see him getting in his car in that bottom picture).

It really was fun! Just to do the unexpected, an act of generosity for someone you don't know, and who can't do anything in return, but makes them feel special. We loved it! Shane was all "that's the best $9 I've ever spent!" definitely will do that again! Maybe we will make it a family tradition? ;) Now THAT's what I call a happy meal! ;)