ChosenRebel's Blog

If you live in snow country you might find it difficult to interact with neighbors for the next 5 months or more. When I lived in the Chicago area, it wasn’t uncommon to be putting a parka on children from Mid-October to the end of March. Sure there were exceptions, but it can be difficult to maintain contact with your neighbors when they are hustling to get out of the cold and into the warmth of their home.

So here is a grab bag of ideas of how you can change the winter dynamic with your neighbors but first, some principles.

1. Take advantage of the things that only happen in the winter.
2. Try to create opportunities for interaction.
3. Remember, effort not saturated in prayer, is fruitless. 

So weather your winter looks like the pictures below or is far more mild, use what Winter gives you for glory of your God and the joy of your neighbors.

So, off to a short list of  ideas.

• Snow, wet weather, car windows with a glaze of ice.
• Cold
• Snow days
• Getting plowed in by snow plows
• Splashes from potholes
• Salt trucks, fender-benders, broken appointments, longer commutes. 

1. A snow day means a mom or dad who needs work can’t work because their children can’t go to school.

   • Offer to watch the children and entertain them with cookies and coco and coloring books and read to them your favorite children’s book. It will cost you the day and open up a window of friendship with a neighbor and family.

2. Even in South Carolina, there will be five to ten mornings when cars sitting in driveways will have to be scraped of ice.

   • Get up early and scrape as many neighbor’s cars as you can so their day has an easier start. Pray that God might open a window to friendship.

3. Winter is a great time to have neighbors into your home for something fun and warm.

   • Bowl games: invite a neighbor over to watch a game together. Saturate the day with prayer that God might move the conversation toward Christ in some way.
   • Call your neighbors to a “favorite soup” night. Saturate the evening with prayer before anyone arrives. Play some games.

4. If it does snow, go with it.

   • Build an upside down snowman like the one in the picture and let the whimsical nature of your creation spread waves of chuckles through the neighborhood. Starting conversations might be just that easy and fun. And again, saturate everything you do with prayer.
     ……..

5. Ask God to make you creative and come up with your own ideas. Remember, there is no impact without contact.

May God use all your efforts to represent him and love your neighbors.

Update: here’s another link to some more ideas. LINK