An Awesome Day!

 
Well this is what our Saturday looked like. We held the free garage sale and had beautiful weather. We started setting up around 8:30 and it was a little chaotic. We were just in this empty lot and dependent on the neighbors for electricity. Well they came through for us after a panicky few minutes and we got the moonwalk up and running. We had hot apple cider and LOADS of cookies. We had lots of wrapping paper and ribbon. We wrapped the things people picked out as gifts for others. We highly encouraged this type of shopping. At noon we were able to grill hotdogs and serve water. The traffic was slow at first but picked up around noon. I can not tell you what an awesome experience this was. People just thought it was a garage sale when they first came up. Then we would either approach them and explain it or they would ask a price on something. The looks on their faces were priceless. We had to tell most people several times that it was free before they would believe us. We heard so many stories about families in hard times. So many said they didn't think they were going to be able to have Christmas before this! There were many tears and most of these people wanted to donate money. We just kept telling them no, that this is just purely a blessing! We had people ask us to pray for them and were able to share God's love with so many.

One of the most amazing things we experienced was the people's integrity. They were so careful to make sure they took only what they felt they needed. They would be sure the clothes would fit the kids before just taking the stuff. They were often hesitant to take extra things and we had to encourage them often! I really thought someone would just pull up and load everything into their car. But this never happened! Amazingly, we had one man that came right back with stuff of his own! He had looked around and found out what we were doing. He got in his car and we just shrugged thinking he must not have really believed us or something. Then next thing we knew, he was back and his car was full of things! They were nice things too! He wanted to give, even in his need!

I know I said it earlier, but I can not tell you what an awesome experience this was for us. I believe it may have blessed us more than those we served. Tonight our group talked about how to make this an annual event. We talked about how to make it bigger and better. We also talked about leaving it the same as not to lose the heart of the whole project. So who knows what next year will look like, but I can't wait.

I would encourage and maybe even challenge you to try the same thing. Most of us have too much stuff as it is. It is crowded our closets, cabinets, and toy chests. We are going to give and get more stuff this season to place in these crowded storage spaces. Please think about cleaning out and just offering it to those in need. You don't need to have many people involved to make a difference to someone. I started out planning on doing this in my front yard by myself. I know there are lots of charities that will take things, but standing there talking with people and offering it for free is a priceless experience. You can take the leftovers to the charities! We did!