The Lutheran church I worked at in Wisconsin had a baby ministry. People would periodically visit families with babies and leave them Bible story books. It was a lovely idea that fizzled out by the time I left.
Lucy and I have our own take on "baby ministry": ministry BY babies rather than TO babies. I first came up with the idea while shopping with Lucy. A harried cashier hours into her shift was checking us out and smiled at Lucy, who smiled back, which caused the cashier to talk to her, which made her smile and coo even more, which charmed the cashier. As the cashier handed me my receipt, she thanked me for bringing Lucy in because it made her night. I already knew that Lucy's smiles have theraputic properties, but I hadn't considered that she could have such an effect on people. Since then, we've brightened cashiers' days several times. If anyone shows interest in her, I stop and let Lucy interact with them. She loves it, and it leaves people genuinely feeling happier.
Today we tried out first non-cashier baby ministry visit. Friends from church have been stuck at home recovering from surgery and injuries and hinted that a visit from Lucy would be welcome. So we went to see Karen and Mitch and their dogs. Lucy has been a little moody recently, but she had her moments during the visit. She showed off her straw-drinking skills (which are incredibly cute). She let Karen hold her for a few minutes at a time and was happy to interact if I held her. She was fascinated by Mitch as long as he didn't wear a hat. For some reason his hat made her cry. She loved the dogs and did a pretty good job of being gentle when petting tiny Sadie. Lucy has been invited back, and we'll certainly take them up on that offer. We've had invitations from other people in the church, so we'll probably try to "do some visitation." :)
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