On July 4, RADIUS Centerville students handed out 3000 ice cream sandwiches to people along the parade route of the Gilbert Peach Festival. The ice cream sandwiches were donated by the people of RADUS Centerville, collected by the students staff, and stored in every freezer available!
The big question was – how are we going to pull this off in 100 degree heat?!? (Ryan Molony made it easy to accomplish this event because of the constant doubt he voiced to Sean and I weeks prior. His doubt that we could pull this off fueled us!) We knew we needed lots and lots of coolers that were easy to carry, but we were still afraid the ice cream sandwiches would be dripping all over clothes up and down Main Street Gilbert. So, we kept thinking. And kept thinking. We decided to put three chest freezers on the back of a trailer powered by two generators – and it worked!
So, why ice cream sandwiches? Here are three reasons:
- Ice Cream Sandwiches “break the ice” so to speak! It served as an introduction. It helped us say, “Hey, Gilbert! We’re RADIUS Church and we care about you.”
- The introduction was fun. Fun helps form relationships. Fun often takes us past the introduction and gives us a fun and unique memory together.
- Fun over time deepens relationships and earns us the opportunity to share Jesus. Next time we see someone that received an ice cream sandwich, we’ll have a starting point. As we introduce ourselves, have fun and care for people, we earn the right to share the Jesus. Already, people that see us around town with a RADIUS shirt on have stopped and thanked us for ice cream sandwiches which creates an opportunity to invite them to church and share about Jesus with them.
A couple of lessons learned: You can never have enough ice cream sandwiches for a July 4 in Gilbert (we actually ran out before the end of the parade!) AND we should always be thinking towards the next ice cream sandwich opportunity/
By Caleb Krick, RADIUS Students Intern at Centerville