Feb.
17, 2013
Today I had church at Walmart. Mind you there was no
singing, nor did we bow down to the god of materialism, but there were elements
of real church happening.
It started in the make-up aisle. Actually, a bunch of stuff happened in that
section. I noticed a woman had a great
collection of herbs in her shopping cart. I complimented her on her healthy purchases.
“Thanks!” she said, “They are a birthday gift for my neighbor.” What a
cool idea, I thought. I would love to try that some time to cheer
up my neighbor.
While I was pondering this, that very neighbor walked
by! She is a sweet, older lady who works
at Walmart. “Sarah, is that you?”
“Hi
Kris, I thought that was you! How are you?”
I found out Sarah (name changed) wasn't doing so
great. “I’m really suffering from
anxiety.” Sarah is suffering from more
than that. Cancer has taken her hair in
the last year, and has left her on meds that make her shaky.
I listened and tried to sympathize, though inwardly I
was thinking if I had cancer I could be anxious as well. When she said, “It just seems there’s no
kicking this anxiety,” I decided there was something we could do.
Right there in front of the L’oreal section, Sarah and
I had ministry time. We bowed our heads
and prayed one of my sixty-second prayers.
“Thank you sooo much, Sarah smiled.”
I asked if she was drinking coffee.
I found out that she drinks de-caf regularly, and suggested that if she
is having anxiety attacks to maybe just do herbal stuff. De-caf still has a percentage of caffeine in
it.
As Sarah went on to stocking her shelf, I got about
five feet away and ran into Jo. Because
I champion for the local school where her sons attended, she always has a big
smile for me. I told her how we’d attended the Robotics Club’s demo yesterday
at Kealakehe High. I also mentioned
that this plus the speech and debate club, and the United Nations club just
might woo our son Evan there in a couple years. Jo pointed out that the public high school
has so many Advanced Placement classes and unique offerings that the smaller
private school simply does not have.
“God will make it clear to you, though, what you are to do. It can be different for each child. If you really seek Him on where your sons
attend school, you can’t lose.”
Wow. Major
encouragement for me right there next to the cotton balls.
Before
Jo could move on, Phillip and his son Daniel stopped for a chat. Kindergartner Daniel was happily scrolling through
a game on his new Kindle while his papa added things around him in the
cart. “I’m happy that he has this Kindle
and can do all of these computer things, but I don’t like how he downloads
games without asking me.”
“Ah,” the elder Jo piped up. “Like anything, the Kindle is just another
opportunity for parents to be the parents.
It’s ultimately up to us what they watch and play.” OK. A
word of exhortation and parenting message right there near the mascara section.
I gathered my boys from the toy section and picked out
a birthday card with Jo Jo for a
classmate. We ran into a few more
friends with whom we smiled or high-fived or hugged.
As we got in line at the check stand, Daniel and his
family were in front of us. “We’re
making a smoothie,” Daniel told me. He
pointed to a bag of carrots. “My
sweetheart makes especially healthy ones.
You know the lawyer on campus?”
“You mean Diane, who does the all the VISA stuff?”
“Yeah, he said in his Brazilian accent. “She is ill. We are making her a special drink.”
There’s body ministry.
I could tell by Daniel’s face that this was serious. I made a mental note to pray for this woman
as well. My boys unloaded our shopping cart and
cheerfully carried out my heavy bags to the car. Youth were now serving as we rounded out the
end of our “Walmart church service.”
I climbed in the car next to my sleeping husband (Is that another parallel? Sleeping husbands in church??) and told him I felt refreshed and
encouraged. I’d just come from church
inside Walmart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As we filed out of the sanctuary of our Living Hope Church a
couple Sundays ago, our pastor called out, “Now it’s time for real church! Let’s go get some refreshments in the
garden!” At the “real church,” we ate
snacks, hugged on friends, prayed with people if we felt led, and received
encouragement from each other. Aside
from the eating part, that’s pretty much what happened in the make-up section
at Walmart.
