By Kat Silverglate Founder (Copyright 2020)

Here’s the story.

The first pandemic death that grazed close to home was the relative of an instructor I’d met at a writer’s conference. We became Facebook acquaintances.  He’d posted the news on his personal page.  Of course, I didn’t know his relative when I read it, but the words felt a bit like the heat of a bullet grazing the surface of my skin -- not a direct hit; but close enough to register that the coming Covid battle would have plenty of near-misses and direct hits.  We were all bracing for the unknown as April came to a close. 

The demand for masks was increasing exponentially in the early days of May and the Ridiculous Hour Foundation was juggling responses to its April mission to inspire mask-making to fill the need. This Facebook friend’s post included a clip of a newscast and an article that told of his wife’s relative who was employed by a church up north.  He’d been a lifelong member of the church and had worked there for the nine years before his death.  He was their first casualty. 

The pastor asked anybody who wanted to honor his memory to donate a handmade mask.  Turns out, this particular congregation already had what they called “a clothesline ministry” where they hung hats, gloves and scarves on a laundry line in front of the building for anybody who needed protection during the frigid winter.  Isn’t that an amazing metaphor for God’s cover?  His love?  Free.  A gift.  Unmerited. Unearned.  Here, can you receive it? Now, they were hanging masks on the line for anybody in need of a different kind of cover at the peak of spring.

In this man’s honor and to remind folks that God’s love often comes from the ridiculous responsiveness of strangers, the Ridiculous Hour Foundation sent some of your handmade masks to the clothesline ministry. Ironically, the woman who made this particular set of masks, delivered them to us with this statement –

“They aren’t very good.  It’s the best I could do with what I had.  I used an old sheet.  I washed it first.” 

To her we say:

“Look what God did with that old sheet and your ridiculous responsiveness.  Well done.”

Not long after that, the phone rang with news of a local non-profit that exists to help homeless kids get through high school.  What?!?  Who knew that organizations like that even existed? That’s amazing, isn’t it?  They were hosting a drive-thru send off for about 100 seniors who were now off to various colleges.  That’s right.  Kids struggling with some brand of homeless were now going to college. 

The question from the pastor who alerted us to this event was this:

“Does the Ridiculous Hour Foundation have anything that would help these kids as the set out on their college journey?”

“Masks!” we responded.  “We have masks.  We have beautiful handmade masks. Yes, we are in!  All in.”

So, we packaged each one up and slapped a giant colorful sticker on the outside of the soft grey bag:

“Congratulations Graduate!  We pray that this is a sweet reminder that you are covered by God’s ridiculous love!”

In each package, we also included a copy of April’s mission pack so that they could see some of what God did through strangers to make this covering available to them.  And also, so they too might be inspired to live ridiculously responsive lives.

At the event, we stood on a sidewalk lined with representatives from other nonprofits and faith based organizations who where giving away everything from computers, ironing boards, and gift cards, to books, school supplies, and other college swag.  As each car slowed, the graduate held out a sign with his or her name and the name of the school where they had been admitted.  We were screaming and cheering like maniacs for these kids and marveling at how this was even possible.  God is so good.

They paused their cars at each station along the sidewalk while we filled their trunks and back seats and hands with goodies.  Because our organization was toward the end of the line, we had more time with each car.  We took the opportunity to look each graduate in the eye through their open car window and hand them the packaged with words like these –

“We pray that this mask, handmade by a total stranger, reminds you that you are covered by God’s ridiculous love 24/7.”

You know, something funny happens when you look someone in the eye and tell them that God loves them.  That He wants to cover them.  Particularly when you are on a sidewalk that isn’t attached to a building with a faith symbol on the outside.  They pause. Nearly every one of those kids paused intently as they reached out to take the gift, teared up, or asked another question like… “wait, what did you say?”  One mother jumped out of the car and yelled, “Amen!”

It felt like holy ground.

We’ve had lots of questions about our goal of inspiring 609 masks. Why 609?  Why not 572?  Or 168?   Actually, the number of masks was chosen pretty much at random.  Six hundred just seemed outrageous to us.  So we chose it, but every time we typed it, we hit the nine instead of the zero, so 609 became the number. 

We’ve also had questions about whether we hit the goal of 609?  We’re thrilled to report that we reached and far surpassed our goal, but not in the way you may imagine.  We’ve received more than 300 handmade masks to give away, and fabric for the making of many more. But as we’ve reached out to the mask-makers and thanked them for sharing their super powers, this is what we heard from most of ‘em.  The conversations sounded more like confessions than stories at the start.  They pretty much went something like this:

“I’m sorry I didn’t deliver more to you.  But when I told people what I was doing or when they saw me wearing my handmade mask, they started to ask for them.  I’d set out to make some for you and then a relative or co-worker or friend would ask for some. I couldn’t say no.”

When we asked how many were given away in addition to the ones they sent us, most said they thought they gave away as many as they made for us. 

One woman called us out of the blue just to tell us she had been gathering in a group with others and making them regularly. They’d made a ton of masks.  All of them were given away just about as fast as they could produce them.  She simply wanted to let us know, it was the April prompt that got the party started.  Thank you Dawn.  We so love that you encouraged us and others with your story! 

That was enough for us to realize God had already blown away our original goal – in His way.  He didn’t owe us this news, of course, but we sure are glad we got to discover it and now celebrate it with you.

After May, promises of masks just kept coming.  For any of you still sewing, we  have some beautiful donated fabric available if you’d like to exercise your sewing super power and convert them to masks we can give away.  Let us know if you feel the nudge to respond.

Her call and the quasi-confession of some of the others is such an important lesson for us here at the Ridiculous Hour Foundation.  We call these Mobile Mission Packs because they go out to you.  We’ve designed them so that they can be done in your own hometown with your own people.  We will periodically do missions like the masked mission where the Foundation brings people together to live it out locally together in our own hometown.  But that’s just one hometown.  Yours is another.  God works in hearts.  One at a time.  Wherever we are.  We love how He mobilizes people in His time, in His way.  And we love to shed light on how He’s doing that through you and others. Hence, this report!    

As part of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ says that when someone turns a light on, nobody thinks about putting it under a bed or hiding it.  It’s intended to shed light on all those in proximity to the light.  Matthew 5:16 says, “in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

That’s our heart this month as we give this Moblie Mission Report.  We share these stories of what God is doing SO THAT our Father in heaven may be glorified. 

Thank You Lord for all you have done, are doing and will do with this masked mission.  Amen.    

We can’t wait till next month where we’ll be on to our next mobile mission. Hope to see ya then.