I wanted to share this idea to a very good friend of mine, Daniella, my brother Ej, and James. Just a day ago, I saw her tweet about wanting Tim Hortons. I saw it as an opportunity to do another local mission trip and share about Mission McChicken. When we think of the words "mission trip," some of us if not most of us think about going to a third world country like Africa, Belize and Guatemala, or Ecuador. For me, doing missions is a lifestyle. It is not limited to one, two, or three weeks of your summer when you decide to go reach out to the poor in another country. My mission site is here, 10 feet away from my lawn. My mission site is here in the heart of the city in Detroit. My mission site is in the drive-thru of Tim Hortons and McDonald's. It says in Matthew 5:13-16 that "we are the salt of the earth." We need to be the flavor in this bland world of leftovers. We can simply do that by sharing or paying for someone's meal in a restaurant or in the drive-thru.
After a few verses and a little motivational speech about faith, we decided to act on the idea of making someone's day by paying for their meal. It was socially awkward for them, but they loved the fact that it would bother someone that a stranger bought their meal. I bought them 5 McChickens to start with and they were very excited to hand them out. We started praying for "the right person" to be the recipient of the blessing. When we saw a boy walking down Telegraph, we offered it to him--he said, "no thanks." We didn't let that discourage us. We were still excited as we were on our way back to the church. We had to tell our other friends about this mission and we did. The kids were excited to be a part of it--so excited that they decided to take the bag of McChickens and attempt to stop cars passing by the road in front of the church just so they can share the blessings. It reminded me of what Jesus what talking about in the Bible--childlike faith that believes. For the kids, it wasn't just a belief because they ACTED in something that they believed in--hence, it's faith.
I decided to take a different approach. My car was running out of gas so I decided to take Daniella and Arielle with me to the gas station, praying that we can be a blessing to someone. When we pulled up, there were two boys in front of the store with their bikes. Daniella's eyes lit up with joy when he saw them. It was now her opportunity to share! Daniella and Arielle hesitantly walked towards them in awkwardness, paused, and then said hi. With the McChicken in her hand, she straightens out her arm and hands the sandwich. They exchanged a few words and walked in glee back towards the car. "That was awesome!" says Daniella. "If we can do it once, we can do it again!" says Arielle. I was in awe. That was totally kickface.
We decided to go back to the church to get the rest of the McChickens. This time, I brought James and EJ with me. As we were on our way back to the gas station, we prayed that the boys will still be there. We pulled up to the gas station and there they were--with 3 or 4 more of their friends! As we drove by them, EJ recognized that they were his friends. Such a small world that we live in. It turns out that they go to school with EJ. They gave the rest of the McChickens to them. They were suspicious at first, thinking that we put something in the sandwiches, but they eventually finished the sandwiches before we can even pull out of the gas station.
The kids were very excited to be part of this short-term mission trip. They are now forming more ideas with what they want to do in their schools, possibly starting a Christian club so they can be a blessing to their classmates. I am also very excited for by brother because a door has been opened for him to share his faith.
I hope that you have been blessed by this story and I pray that you will be a part of Mission McChicken.
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