The art of kindness Jeff VanBeaver hands out information on the Acts 1:8 Ministry while supporters distribute hot chocolate (Random Acts Of Kindness) on a recent chilly morning (photo by Tina Gohr). A local outreach group has incorporated to show others how to touch people’s lives By Christopher Clough News-Chronicle If you’ve been to Saturday’s downtown Holiday Parade or the Nov. 16 Power of One Christian music festival, you might have seen them dispensing hot chocolate. For free. Or you might have gotten a free cold soda from them at a warm Artstreet back on Aug. 24. Or taken advantage of their 99-cents per gallon gasoline event on Sept. 14. Or eaten a free Belgian pie at the Oct. 12 farmers’ market. Those are some of the things a group from Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Ashwaubenon called Random Acts of Kindness, or RACK, has done for area residents and visitors. Again, all for free. Now the group’s leader has formed a 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization, incorporated two weeks ago and funded entirely through private donations, which will show other churches and religious groups of all denominations how they can be involved with similar acts of kindness. And of course, it’ll help them for free. “I’ve seen a lot of churches that don’t have an outreach program,” said De Pere businessman Jeff Van Beaver, leader of Acts 1:8 Ministry and the RACK projects. “My passion is outreach. I have a strong passion for those who are unchurched, to reach out and say there’s a connection between God and themselves. If we do this company, we can take it worldwide. “This is an easy program to do, it can be at a very low cost. We’ve done some expensive ones, the gas buydown was about $1,400. But the hot chocolate giveaways were very inexpensive.” Acts 1:8 has a training kit called PACK, or Planned Acts of Christian Kindness, available to interested parties, showing them what they can do to reach others. Van Beaver said it includes a book that explains almost everything one would need to know, a VHS tape showing RACK in action, and a CD with necessary forms and information. Among the forms on the CD is a card the ministry hands out with its giveaways. One side says, “showing God’s Love in a Practical Way”; the other has space for the participating church’s name, address, phone, Web site and service times. The group also has a disc of Christmas music with the same information for Pilgrim Lutheran. “The card is already preprinted on the CD,” Van Beaver said. “You just type the information in and print it out. The VHS is kind of a training video, it shows what happens when we’re out there. The book describes where to go, what to do in detail. If I could pick one item out of the kit that makes the whole thing, this is it. “But anybody can do this, it’s just handing out. We try to keep it as simple as possible. I believe an individual could review this in an hour and have an excellent feel for what this is all about.” And if you still have questions after that, Van Beaver and his seven staffers in Acts 1:8 are available for consulting — again, at no charge. “I’ve seen similar kits out there for $100, plus consultant fees,” he said. “So the churches who would work with us are getting an excellent deal.” If there’s one thing Van Beaver stresses about Acts 1:8, it’s that accepting the acts of kindness is not dependent on making a donation or hearing a sermon. He wants to make sure other groups using his kit get the same message. “We never try to push our church on them,” he said. “If they come, great, they’re always welcome. People expect to have to give money, but we don’t accept any. Or (people think) there’s strings attached, they have to come to our church. “We always reiterate, there’s no strings. We’re not pushing anybody, we don’t want to go in that direction. If they want to hear more about us, they’ll ask. If they want to grow within their own faith, that’s OK. It comes back to developing a relationship with Christ in their arena.” He said people who have been the beneficiaries of their gifts recognize and remember the group. “People now say, ‘Oh, it’s you guys,’” Van Beaver said. “It’s good to be affiliated with that type of recognition.” Six churches have asked about PACK so far, Van Beaver said. Two just received their kits, one local and one in Boston. The kits will also be available starting Monday at Lighthouse Christian Books, 2781 S. Oneida St., Ashwaubenon. Van Beaver said he is making a presentation to about 70 area Christian business leaders on Jan. 2. He said planting the seed locally is not only the best way to spread the word, it’s where the name of the ministry comes from. Acts 1:8 says, depending on which version of the Bible is referenced, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” “The interpretation is, you start sharing in your hometown and spread from there to the ends of the earth,” Van Beaver said. “It’s like a ripple effect. “Our purpose is to reach churches in this area and spread. But if people outside the area find out about this, we’ll spread out.” FYI For more information on Acts 1:8 or its Planned Acts of Kindness kit, call 366-4339 or visit www.acts18.org.