Hospitality Dare #4 - Provide for a Need Today

I'm participating in a Hospitality Dare. For 7 days I'll be posting about how I took the dare and what I did.
See the end of this post for how you can take the hospitality dare.



Dare #4:   Provide for a need today.  Take a bag of rummage to a non-profit, help an elderly person load groceries, take someone home from school who doesn't have a ride, or sacrificially give of your time or resources in some small (or big) way. 


The first day of the dare series I bought a case of beanie weenies, fruit cups and peanut butter crackers. I delivered these food items today to our church for the mini food pantry. We support a large food pantry that serves families in our community but we also keep a small mini pantry at our church.  This mini pantry is used to help people who stop by the church office looking for help.   Many of the people who need help are homeless, living on the streets or camping in the woods behind our church. All items in the bag are ready to eat. The bags also contain hygiene items as well. 

Some of the items in the bag:
Beanie weenies
Vienna sausage
potted meats
fruit cups
pudding cups
baked beans
bottled water and juice
crackers
plastic forks and spoons
Hand wipes 
toothbrush
toothpaste
comb


Every church should keep a food pantry of some type in their facility. It's a great way to give immediate help when someone can't get to the big food pantry right away.

The mini pantry is kept in a closest in one of the Sunday school rooms. Each bag is numbered
so we can keep track of how many have been given out. Since starting the mini pantry 5 years ago
we've given out 877 bags.

You can learn more about the Hospitality Dare by checking out Kirsten's blog post.

I dare you!

Have you accepted the Hospitality Dare? 

Leave me a comment and let me know how it's going!

You can see what I did to meet these dares:

Hospitality Dares and Challenges

Hospitality Dare #3 Listening to Someone

I'm participating in a 7 day Hospitality Dare. Each day I'll post about how I responded to the dare. See the end of the post to see how you can take the dare!

The dare for the day

Dare #3:  Take the time to STOP what you are doing and really listen to someone today.  See that person fully and give your undivided attention to him/her. 

This dare wasn't too difficult for me since I'm naturally more of a listener than a talker. That said I decided to try a little experiment. As I ran my errands today I made a point to really speak with the cashier and others I came in contact with.

• While picking up a prescription for my mom I turned to the lady behind in line and asked her how she was doing today. That lead to her telling me all about her husband and his illness and how much money she spends each month on prescriptions. I left the store and lifted up a prayer for her and her situation and I thanked God that my mom has really good insurance. 
• In the Dollar General store I asked the cashier how her day was going. She barely mumbled a surly OK. When I left the store I prayed that God would meet whatever need was on her heart and I thanked the Lord that I have a job I love. 
• While waiting on the traffic light I bought a paper from a guy who I know is homeless. I asked him where he was sleeping now. He told me he'd found a nice place behind the grocery store where there's plenty of cardboard to make a bed and  the deli manager leaves good food out for him to eat. I bought a paper and gave him a little extra. As I pulled away I prayed God would bless this guy and I thanked God for good people like the deli manager. I also thanked Him for my home and family. 

None of these encounters took much time or cost me anything. I'm thankful for the opportunity to listen and to pray. 

For more information about the 7 Day Hospitality Dare see

Kristin's post for listening tips

I dare you!

You can see what I did to meet these dares:
Hospitality Dares and Challenges

Hospitality Dare #1 Lunch Sacks and Manna Bags

I got the first dare in my inbox yesterday. 

Day #1 Dare:   Make an extra lunch and put it in a bag.  Throughout the day, look for someone to bless.  It could be a homeless person, a child who forgot their lunch at school, a co-worker who has no time to eat, etc. {If you are a praying person, pray over the lunch and who to give it to}.   

I modified this dare a little. I do pack a lunch for my husband. It consists of leftovers and since I only had one hamburger patty I didn't have any extra to send as far as lunch goes. So I decided to make a pan of brownies for him to take to the employees in his office. 

He was happy since I don't usually make brownies just for us and he said the guys at work would eat them up.

Brownies made from a box mix. Can't get much easier than that! My
husband said they were gone by 8am!

The challenge option is to make Manna Bags. You can read all the details on Kirsten's post. She even has some neat printable.  Basically a Manna Bag is  a gallon size Ziploc bag that you fill with things such as individual servings of canned foods like beanie weenies and packages of crackers and a few hygiene items like a toothbrush and toothpaste. Keep these bags in your car and pass out to people in need. I did this project with my women's circle a while back and it's a really neat way to handle people who are on street corner asking for help.


(Manna - when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness they cried out for food and God generously rained down manna for them to eat. Exodus 16 The bible says that manna tasted like wafers made with honey. God gives only the best!)

Instead of making the bags I went to Sam's Club and purchased a case of Beanie Weenies, small fruit cups and peanut butter crackers to donate to our church's mini food pantry.  There's a small homeless population who live in the woods by our church and these bags are given out to those who come looking for help.


I didn't do this exactly as I was dared to but it did  spur me do something and that's what counts:-)


Hospitality is about seeing the needs around you and doing what you can to meet those needs.  

Have you reached out to meet a need today?

I dare you!

http://meaninginaminute.com/hospitality/

Hospitality Dare Introduction