Pastor Robin Riley was walking his dog down the streets of Wheatland, Wyoming when he noticed out of the corner of his eye a small rock propped up against the light post. He went over and picked up the painted rock that greeted him as a colorful ladybug. He turned it over and found a written note on the back: “You rock!” it read and below that, “Wheatland Rocks” along with a date.
He took the rock back to work and talked about it with the secretary, Mandy Miller, who then told him about the new Facebook craze with kids in the region. Her son found a rock that was painted in Casper.
In Casper, people have posted pictures of rocks and the stories of how they connected with other participants. Their Facebook group boasts 7,000 members. The Wheatland page was created after one family saw a Guernsey friend’s Facebook page that had pictures of painting and hiding rocks for others to find and re-hide. “Rockin Wheatland” now has over 1,000 members.
As Pastor Riley and his secretary were talking about the idea, they decided to participate and created “God Rocks” on the church Facebook page. They launched it with an afternoon of rock painting at church as part of the coming fall “Roundup Sunday” activities. They saw it as a great way to spread goodwill and the message of God’s grace to those in the town of 3,000.
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