I was recently ministering at a church in Norwich (UK) staying with a family who have two sons. One of the sons has been diagnosed with autism and the other with aspergers. As you can imagine it has not been easy trying to manage the boys. They are doing a wonderful job which is a testimony to many other families who face the same issues.

One of the many things that they have discovered when the boys are feeling the pressure is to give them a hug until they feel that the tensions have subsided. When shopping for groceries in their local Asda (A major grocery chain in the UK and part of the WalMart Group) they arrived at the till to pay for their groceries only to discover that the tension levels in the boys were rising. Mum and Dad immediately said, “OK lets all hug” and stopping what they were doing, which was loading shopping on the counter, formed a hug. The check out lady exclaimed “I would like a hug” and Jo the mum said, “Well come and join us” and she did - and for that moment the store stood still.

When next visiting the store, a staff member walked up to Jo and asked, “Are you the hugging lady?” and Jo replied, “I guess I am.” The staff member then asked, “Can you please give me a hug?” Jo proceeded to do so. Since then she has become known as the “Hugging lady” and gets regular requests from Staff to give them a hug. Some have even burst into tears!

In another situation in a church in the States, Grace was at a meeting for women and in the service it was announced “give each other a hug.” Many in that congregation began to weep.

What am I trying to say? Well, we can all give someone a hug. It needs no words
but can radically change someone’s life - why, give it a try?

In talking to others about this, I was shown a clip on “You tube” under the title Free Hug Campaign. The history of it can be found at Wikipedia, which has now gone worldwide.

If you are brave enough to try it why not let me know the results.