By L. A. Williams
Christian Action League
November 22, 2016
Seated around a table, plates piled high with turkey and dressing, it’s easy to be thankful. But how would lives be changed if people all over the nation were reminded to say “Thank You Jesus” on a daily basis.
It’s a concept that 16-year-old Lucas Hunt says he’s watching God carry out, with a sunny little yard sign that started in Randolph County, North Carolina, and is spreading across the United States.
The “Thank You Jesus” movement got its start a couple of years ago when Hunt and his mother bought three Christmas-themed signs to stick up along the roadside to point passersby to the true reason for the season. Hunt said he saw the signs as a way to share Christ with more people, so the next year, they planted 16 of the Christmas signs, and the homeschooled teen began praying about putting up different faith-based signs for every holiday.
By the time Easter rolled around, he discovered that God had put a similar yearning in the heart of Connie Wilson Frazier, a fellow parishioner at Hopewell Friends Church, who came up with the sign’s design and helped Hunt connect with a printer to produce them.
Their three-word message hit home, and roughly 22,000 of the signs have been planted in yards across North Carolina and in at least 21 other states. Recently, some reached as far as Canada.
“I wanted something you could drive down the road and read without having to slow down or squint,” Hunt said. “Thank You Jesus is a powerful message.”
Frazier said one of the best features of the outreach is that “you can’t look at a sign without reading it, so like it or not, people are saying the words ‘thank you Jesus.’”
Also, she said, the signs are a great encouragement for people going through hard times and also serve as a conversation-starter for many Christians who may be reticent to share their faith.
Eager to share their own faith, Hunt and his family set an initial goal to sell 500, had the signs printed and started hawking them on Thursday nights at their church and out of their vehicles wherever they went. As soon as the signs began to appear in yards, demand took off and their orders of 50-to-70 increased to 500 at a time. Extended family and neighbors would show up to help the Hunts assemble the signs, plugging the metal stakes into the corrugated boards.
“After Easter came and went, people still didn’t take them down. We kept on getting calls from people wanting more signs,” Hunt said.
Their printer suggested a website to help spread the word nationally, and sales continued to soar. Though the effort was never a fundraiser, Hunt’s parents and Frazier formed the Thank You Jesus Mission, a 501(c)(3), to channel royalties from the printing company into a fund to help small, rural churches spread the Gospel and meet the needs of their communities.
“I could have sold these signs and made money off of it, but I have a great family and home. God has blessed us so much already,” Hunt said. “It was never about the money. It’s always been about selling the signs to spread God’s message.”
He has high hopes that the message of thankfulness will last well past Thanksgiving.
“You drive by one of the signs and automatically think of something you are thankful for,” Hunt said. “It really can make Thanksgiving an everyday thing.”
Take Christian Action:
To order a “Thank You Jesus” sign for your yard, visit www.thankyoujesussigns.com.
Details about the Thank You Jesus Mission are available at www.thankyoujesusmission.org.
Related Stories:
‘Thank You Jesus Signs’ emerged from teen’s Easter idea (Video)