July 30, 2001

Ministry blossoms when florist
hands Travis 10,000 bouquets
___By Derick Wilson
___Special to the Standard
___FORT WORTH--Members of Travis Avenue Baptist Church arrived at church July 1 to find 10,000 bouquets of flowers awaiting them.
___The flowers had been destined for a local supermarket the Friday before, but the manager determined the temperature in the delivery trailer was inadequate and refused to accept the shipment.
___Daymark Trucking Co. had a full-bloomed problem on its hands. Rather than let the flowers go to waste, the company asked if the church would accept the shipment as a donation. The church agreed, and the flowers were left in a refrigerated trailer at the church until Sunday.
___Members were asked to take as many flowers as they wanted and to distribute them to whomever they wanted with the message that the flowers were a gift from the church. As the flowers went out to neighbors, nursing homes, area businesses, hospitals and many other locations, happy responses from those who received the bouquets began to come back to the church.
___One woman said that a neighbor who received flowers "smiled for the first time in the 10 years I have known her."
___The flowers gave another member a chance to talk with neighbors, creating the possibility of future witnessing opportunities. "They now wave and smile at me," he said.
___The joy spread as far as Tulsa, Okla., for a church's 40th anniversary celebration. An e-mail message from the woman who took the flowers to the Oklahoma church was just one of many expressions of gratitude from recipients of the flowers, including many elderly residents of nursing and retirement homes.
___But the joy was not confined only to those who received the flowers.
___"There was such an atmosphere of excitement the day that the truckload of flowers came in to the church," said Cliff Lea, minister of missions mobilization at Travis Avenue. "People seemed genuinely thrilled for the opportunity to be able to give these flowers away in the name of Jesus."
___Although giving flowers was an unexpected way for the church to spread God's love, it is not unusual for Travis Avenue, which has increased efforts to reach people in the community.
___In March, members distributed about 1,000 copies of the "Jesus" video to the community. In May, the church conducted a special Cinco De Mayo celebration for the many Hispanic families in the neighborhood. In June, the church launched a neighborhood blitz to meet as many neighbors as possible. Neighborhood block parties and servant evangelism projects also are being organized for the fall.
___Travis Avenue has been building some of its outreach strategy on the model of Steve Sjogren, author of "Conspiracy of Kindness." He advocates the use of random acts of kindness to demonstrate the love of Christ in a practical way. Travis Avenue has embraced this principle in its outreach to the local community.
___With the recent gift of flowers, Travis Avenue members saw this ministry reach full bloom.

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