Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Karen Kingsbury: Sometimes People Just Need to Be Seen

Karen Kingsbury: Sometimes People Just Need to Be Seen

you were seen

His name was Henry. He was our waiter at a fancy restaurant in Chicago a few years ago when I was on tour for one of my books. Toward the end of the meal something unusual happened.

I started to cry. Slow tears, just trickling down my cheeks.

My husband looked concerned. “Karen, what’s wrong?”

“Our waiter,” I said. “He needs to know God loves him, but there’s no time. We have to get to our event and he has six tables to serve.”

When God Bless You Isn’t Enough

Henry was an incredibly attentive server. He smiled and got our order right and he worked hard to do it. Everywhere he went, he practically sprinted across the restaurant floor to get his job done. But when he was just off the floor, when he thought no one was looking, Henry’s smile faded. He looked discouraged and hopeless. Beaten up.

Can you relate? These days it’s the norm to feel discouraged and hopeless. Beaten up. What happened next? Well, as our meal ended, I couldn’t get Henry out of my heart. What could I do for him in the few minutes before we left the restaurant?

By then, we had gotten in the habit of tipping generously—25 percent or more—and writing “God bless you!” on the bill. We thought we were evangelizing. But in that moment with Henry, all I could think was that people say “God bless you” when someone sneezes. Telling him that wouldn’t bring joy to his life or give him a reason to believe God loved him. It wouldn’t remind him that Jesus sees him and has a plan for him, or that his hard work matters.

You Were Seen

We gave the tip and wrote the words. But that very day I began dreaming about the YOU WERE SEEN movement. And this month that movement became a reality.

Very simply, church members get a pack of YOU WERE SEEN cards and they hand them out one at a time throughout their day. Where acceptable, they tip—generously. The front of the card leads the recipient to YouWereSeen.com and the gospel message.

The back of the card leads them to you and your church!

In recent weeks, nearly 50,000 YOU WERE SEEN cards have gone out all over the country—and even the world.

What if the recipient of the card needs prayer? God helped us take care of that. We now also have a 24/7 prayer line number on the YOU WERE SEEN cards and website. And our partner—the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—tells us hundreds of people are coming to them from YouWereSeen.com and clicking the link stating they have found faith in Jesus for the first time!