MOPS McDonald's Coupon Story

Response #3 to a challenge Johanna gave to Mothers of Preschoolers Each family was given a McDonald's gift certificate and challenged to find a way to reach out and serve their community together as a family.

Hi Johanna,

I am one of the mothers that was present at MOPS on Sept 10th. I am the mother of two boys ages 3 and 16 months. I hadn't emailed you earlier because we haven't actually found the person to give the certificate to. However, your idea has brought wonderful conversations with my three year old boy. After I explained that we were to give the certificate to a "poor" person and that we were to pray to God to lead us to that person, he kept asking about poverty. At first, he pointed at every man walking in the street and said "There is a poor person. See, see, see, Mommy!" So, this gave me the chance to explain to him what the word poor meant. I told him that a poor person was someone who has no home, no money, no food, no clothes, etc. I explained to him that God had given him a mommy and a daddy, a house, a car, clothes, food, but that there are children who have no mommy or daddy or anything else. Now this is even more special as we would like to adopt or foster a child in the future, if God is willing. I continued to tell him that we must pray for them and take care of them as God wills.

He was really cute and asked by name whether each of his cousins were poor. I kept saying: "No, they are not poor. They have many things." Finally, I told him that God would lead us to the person that He wants us to give the money to. So, now, every time we go in the car, we pray for God's guidance to that person before we leave the house. I keep reminding him that God wants us to care for the poor, and that He is happy when we do so. We haven't found that person yet, but I am so glad that he is now aware not only of poverty around him but about God's blessings in his life as well, and even more important, about God's concern and command to us to take care of the poor.

Also, I have attached to the certificate a $1,000,000 (fake, of course) bill explaining Jesus' love and message of salvation.So, thank you very much for helping us initiate this conversation. I am looking forward to finding the person to give the certificate to and to have Matthew hand it to him/her. And most of all, I am hoping that this will be only the beginning!