Driver Reviver

Last weekend, Labour Weekend, I went to Christchurch for a friend’s 21st birthday party. The whole weekend was a fun time, catching up with friends that I haven’t seen for 3 years, staying with my cousins, and just doing something quite different to my usual routine.

Strangely, my favourite part of the whole trip (and this is no reflection on the rest of the weekend) didn’t come until the journey home. As I was approaching the creatively named ‘Engineers Camp’ I began seeing signs. Not the Acts 2 type of signs, mind you, or the M. Night Shaymalan movie ‘Signs’, but more the “Free Coffee” type signs. It seemed like a good idea, so I pulled in at what turned out to be a ‘Driver Reviver’ set up by State Insurance to refresh tired drivers traveling during the long weekend.

Simply by pulling in, I found myself confronted by friendly smiling faces offering me free tea, coffee, mocha, phoenix organic juices, water, fruit, sausage sizzles, muffins, lollies… and I even had someone come and offer their services painting my face or making a balloon animal for me. The tables were scattered with newspapers, magazines, and competitions allowing me to win free ipods, and I was absolutely amazed.

I would imagine it is likely that these people were getting paid by State for being there, but at the same time, some of them had their children manning the desks, and it hit me that they had given up their holiday just to serve me. State probably did get a lot of publicity out of doing this, but it was such a nice gesture, that as I drove away, I found myself praying for God’s blessings on each one of the people represented there.

And then I was challenged by it. “God is love,” the Bible tells us in 1 John, and “whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.” Whether or not the people at the Driver Reviver were Christians, they were showing the love of God to every person who came to call. Isn’t that what we as Christians are supposed to do?

The fact is, State are doing effective community outreach through their driver revivers (and good on them for doing so!). It wasn’t really a big thing - just a drink and some relaxation - but they were impacting peoples lives, and leaving a positive and lasting impression on some of us.

How can we be doing the same?