This past Saturday, our one year anniversary at the Wash N Dry in Glenn Heights — we ran out of money for the first time ever.

We had a great time serving people and loving on them — meeting them where they were.

And the next morning I received a text from our friends in Waco who told us they had just helped a woman who hadn’t done laundry since winter because she had been out of work.

She finally had a new 40-hour-a-week job and was excited to come and do laundry.

Yet she didn’t have to pay for a thing because our Laundry Love friends were there to join with her.

That’s why we do Laundry Love. Sharing the burdens of others and blessing them in any way we can.

Bluefish.tv came and talked to a couple of our folks for a new small group Bible Study for Bluefish.tv.

As part of the film project, we’ll host a special Laundry Love event on May 14th from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

If you’re available, we’d love to have you come out and help join us care for our community on this special night.

Word is the video series will be out early summer. We’ll keep you posted.

(ht: sustainable traditions)

We just wrapped up another AMAZING night at Laundry Love on Saturday. I lost track of numbers Saturday night but we had some great conversations with friends (old and new).

LOVE making friends out of complete strangers.

Saturday night we met a student from Guinea, Africa, who is in the US studying English at the community college district I work for.

We met a man who’s living in a near by RV park who’s a retired Navy Vet and works on large turbines across the country.

We talked with a friend who we met several months back. She told us that her son wants to play pro-football. She said she’s told him several times that if he makes it to the pros he has to find a laundromat in his area and do his own Laundry Love — being a blessing because he’s been blessed.

In previous months I’ve also felt bad trying to keep a tight watch/grasp on our coin jar throughout the night — not wanting anyone to grab our jar in the midst of helping everyone.

I would hate for someone to think I don’t trust them.

This past Saturday, I kept a looser grip on the jar than normal and there were several times I’d set it down to go help a friend with their laundry in another part of the room.

As I’d help others, I noticed a couple of our new friends opened the jar after I walked away — and as I watched out of the corner of my eye I’d see them place money into the jar, rather than taking it out.

During the night, I believe $13 was donated back to the cause of helping others.

We’re truly all in this together.

Our next Laundry Love will be March 27th from 6-8 p.m. in Glenn Heights. At the Laundromat at Hampton Rd and Bear Creek. Come join us!

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day…

It’s also the 146th anniversary of the day our 13th Amendment was introduced to Congress — which set out to abolish slavery in the United States.

Yet today — slavery still exists — in so many forms.

Sex trade, immigrant farmers working in Florida, children mining for coltan, chocolate and coffee farmers around the world — and so much more.

We encourage you to do a 5 things today…

1. Change your Twitter/Facebook/MySpace avatar to support One Voice to End Slavery:

2. Join One Voice to End Slavery

3. Visit the Human Trafficking section on Change.org and read at least 5 articles

4. Share the link to at least one story from Change.org on Facebook or Twitter

5. Watch David Bastone talk about human trafficking at Google:

Then let us know what you learn.

What impacted you the most? What did you learn when doing one (or all) of the steps above?

What other steps have you taken to end modern day slavery?

“Slavery”: photo by Victor C.M. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/victorcm)

It’s been an amazing eight months and every month we walk away with another great memory and story and several new friends.

If nothing else, I love how Laundry Love helps make friends out of strangers.

On average we help 15-20 individuals and families each month, spending anywhere from $60 – $120 a month.

We’ve stuffed over 2500 quarters into laundry machines, helping over 120 individuals and families.

I just want to say a huge thanks to everyone who’s supported our efforts along the way. Looking forward to even more fun in 2010.

And if you’d like to get involved, we’d love to have you come join us the last Saturday of every month, or you can donate online as well.

Thanks again!

What project did you start in 2009 that you’ll continue on with in 2010?

“sometimes i feel like I’m the one that comes away with more change”

We want to hold on to our money and be “wise as a serpent” when it comes to giving that money away.

Yet, our Laundry Love friends continue to show us just how valuable our quarters can become when we decide to share them with others.

Laundry Love is not about giving away quarters and simply donating a couple hours of time each month — it really is about so much more.

It’s about sharing our lives and journey with those around us.

It’s about reaching out to the stranger and learning just how ill-conceived many of our prejudices actually were.

It’s about finding equal footing around a room full of washing machines and dryers.

It’s not about a project — it really is about the people.

It’s about seeing Jesus in the eyes of a stranger, who soon becomes a welcomed friend.

Greg Russinger has shared several times that as he reads the story about the sick man who was brought to Jesus by his friends he believes we’ve been looking at the story through the wrong lens. Greg says that as he reads the story now, he wonders if it was the friends who brought him to Jesus, or if it was him who brought his friends to Jesus.

After spending a few hours at the Laundromat this past week, I’m certain it’s the later — and hopefully some of the first as well.

This past weekend I was the first to arrive at the laundromat. I immediately met Francis who was blown away that someone would offer to pay for her laundry. Even after filling several machines with quarters for her and paying for other people’s laundry, she still tried to sneak a few quarters of her own into the machines.

As our time at the laundromat continued, I honestly couldn’t tell you how many loads of wash Francis brought with her — I lost count long before we were done.

Francis was trying to do as much laundry as she could afford before catching a Greyhound bus to Kansas the next morning. She planned to spend the next couple months with a relative.

Francis was one of those joyful people with a contagious spirit. Despite her situation in life, you could tell it wasn’t going to get her down for long. As we talked she found out how old I was and immediately began making comparisons to me and her son. Shortly thereafter, she called her son in California, hoping I’d get a chance to talk to him.

As I continued to offer quarters for her laundry she kept reminding me how thankful she was, calling me an angel and then out of the blue gave me a huge hug and an unexpected kiss on the cheek!

Not at all what you’d expect when visiting a laundromat!

Alongside all the laundry and conversations, Francis asked me to help her fold her towels and sheets. I gladly agreed. However, as it came time to fold her fitted sheets, I admitted I was clueless as to the proper way to fold them.

Francis went straight into sharing a story about working in several jobs where she was in charge of laundry and then proceeded to show me the “proper way” to fold a fitted sheet.

By the end of the night, I had not only spoken with Francis — but her son, as well as her cousin via phone. She wanted to share her experience with those she loved and she wanted me to be just as much a part of her family as they were.

As we left the laundromat Saturday night, we wished Francis a goodnight and safe travels to Kansas. She gave us all hugs, thanking us over and over again for our generosity. And then before we left, she asked us to say a prayer for her — which we did.

A small circle of friends, gathered hand in hand, just outside the door of a laundromat.

For two hours, we shared a jar full of quarters and yet Francis and others shared so much more.

As I walked away that night, I knew I had just seen Jesus face to face.

A woman named Francis, with alcohol on her breath and a pack of cigarettes in her pocket, showed him to me with a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek.

I only hope I was able to show Jesus to her as well.

Also take some time to listen to some of the great things The Cobblestone Project is doing in Northwest Arkansas, in addition to their two Laundry Love efforts, working towards a community without needs.

From the OC Register ::

SANTA ANA – They lined up early at the coin laundry near downtown, homeless men and women and poor families waiting not for food or for shelter, but for the simple dignity of a clean shirt.

The washers and driers were free Thursday night, plugged full of quarters by a small group of people who wanted to do something new to help. They called their project, Laundry Love.

A few dozen people lined up outside the Santa Ana coin laundry with bags full of clothes and blankets. Some had shirts that had gone weeks without seeing soap. Some had sleeping bags that had spent many nights on the pavement without a good wash.

“This is wonderful,” said Dolly Annette Arreguin, 55, who was planning to spend Thursday night on the concrete steps of a nearby church. She imagined pulling her newly washed sleeping bag around her and said, “I’m going to be in heaven.”

Read the rest of the article.