Free Hugs
This past weekend I had to face something I've been dreading since I got to England. I already knew one of our weekly outreach's would involve standing on the street with a "free hugs" sign. I knew this, because I saw it on the internet from the previous school. I remember seeing this photo several months ago and thinking- "oh my gosh... I am not doing that."
What I love about IDestiny is we are not forced to do anything. We don't even have to show up for class if we don't feel like it. We were told from day 1 that there were no rules here. Over the past 4 weeks we have learned to live out of a place of identity in who we are- and not living out of a performance of rules, or staving to be perfect. After saying this, none of us have have missed a single day of class- because when we don't have rules, we find ourselves not tempted to be rule breakers. We live out of the knowledge of who we are.
Anyways, I was still pretty sure I would not be someone holding up a "free Hugs" sign and standing on the street- even on the morning of this particular outreach trip. I thought it was crazy that they wanted us to do this, and I was not comfortable hugging strangers! Plus, who in the world would really come up for a hug???
We were broken up into groups of 2 and 3, and sent out with our signs. At first ours was kept folded up, and I was glad of this. I still refused to even hold it. We chatted with some people on the streets and had some good conversations. We bought a coffee, and one of the guys on my team started showing people "the sign". Kill me now- I was still not comfortable with this.
But what I noticed was, people began to smile when seeing the sign. It definitely wasn't something they expected to read. We stood on a corner and just held the sign, and the smiles on peoples faces actually brought joy into my own heart. I was actually having fun! People started coming up for hugs, and other people tried to avoid looking at us (but you could see them trying their hardest to stop smiling)... this made my heart even more happy, and I couldn't stop laughing. I ended up wanting to hold the sign- and looking at each person to see their reaction.
And I didn't just hold the sign. I was so happy I would wave the sign at busses as they drove by full of people. More people got hugs, and we began to call out "free hugs!!!!" to encourage more people to come get a hug. I noticed in store fronts across the street from us (Subway and a travel agency) had people inside all watching us. So I waved to them, and they waved back, but called us over to come inside. We then ran across the street and gave free hugs to everyone in the travel agency, including the customers. They were so happy.
Other shop workers came out later (when we were back outside) and said "we just had to come get our free hug!" Many people would ask us, "You aren't doing this for anything??" Or "Why are you doing this?" and we were able to reply "We just want to show you that God loves you."
The coolest thing about this, was the whole atmosphere changed in the 45 minutes we stood there. So much activity and happiness began to spread on that end of the street- it was amazing to witness, and incredible to be a part of. I never could have imagined this would have been the outcome of something I feared so much, yet was so simple.
What I love about IDestiny is we are not forced to do anything. We don't even have to show up for class if we don't feel like it. We were told from day 1 that there were no rules here. Over the past 4 weeks we have learned to live out of a place of identity in who we are- and not living out of a performance of rules, or staving to be perfect. After saying this, none of us have have missed a single day of class- because when we don't have rules, we find ourselves not tempted to be rule breakers. We live out of the knowledge of who we are.
Anyways, I was still pretty sure I would not be someone holding up a "free Hugs" sign and standing on the street- even on the morning of this particular outreach trip. I thought it was crazy that they wanted us to do this, and I was not comfortable hugging strangers! Plus, who in the world would really come up for a hug???
We were broken up into groups of 2 and 3, and sent out with our signs. At first ours was kept folded up, and I was glad of this. I still refused to even hold it. We chatted with some people on the streets and had some good conversations. We bought a coffee, and one of the guys on my team started showing people "the sign". Kill me now- I was still not comfortable with this.
But what I noticed was, people began to smile when seeing the sign. It definitely wasn't something they expected to read. We stood on a corner and just held the sign, and the smiles on peoples faces actually brought joy into my own heart. I was actually having fun! People started coming up for hugs, and other people tried to avoid looking at us (but you could see them trying their hardest to stop smiling)... this made my heart even more happy, and I couldn't stop laughing. I ended up wanting to hold the sign- and looking at each person to see their reaction.
And I didn't just hold the sign. I was so happy I would wave the sign at busses as they drove by full of people. More people got hugs, and we began to call out "free hugs!!!!" to encourage more people to come get a hug. I noticed in store fronts across the street from us (Subway and a travel agency) had people inside all watching us. So I waved to them, and they waved back, but called us over to come inside. We then ran across the street and gave free hugs to everyone in the travel agency, including the customers. They were so happy.
Other shop workers came out later (when we were back outside) and said "we just had to come get our free hug!" Many people would ask us, "You aren't doing this for anything??" Or "Why are you doing this?" and we were able to reply "We just want to show you that God loves you."
The coolest thing about this, was the whole atmosphere changed in the 45 minutes we stood there. So much activity and happiness began to spread on that end of the street- it was amazing to witness, and incredible to be a part of. I never could have imagined this would have been the outcome of something I feared so much, yet was so simple.
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