Two of our team members have found a unique way to spend Saturday’s together. Rene’ and Judy Jordan have been going to garage sales and asking for the clothing that does not sell to be donated to our mission team for distribution in Honduras. They have discovered that a garage sale is an open invitation to share our joy by allowing people in our community the opportunity to be involved in helping the people of Honduras. Below is what Rene has related to me about their adventures on July 31st.
Tommy,
Judy told me you wanted more information about yesterdays clothing gathering for HON2011.
Everything that happened yesterday was awesome. Normally when we go to garage sales, we use wife's IPhone with the Garage Sale App. to locate the garage sales that may be close by. Then we take the address from the IPhone app. and add it into the GPS so we can drive straight to the garage sale. Yesterday morning, when we were about to get in the car to go, Judy asked if we should get the GPS. We decided not to use the GPS and just drive around looking for Garage Sale signs. We drove to a nearby neighborhood and saw a sign indicating a garage sale down the road so we turned in. We stopped at the house and looked around. The residents had an assortment of items for sale but the clothing items outnumbered the other items and seemed unlikely that all the clothes would sell. I approached the owners and explained that I represented a mission team member at FBCOB, our needs for the mission trip and the need of the people in Honduras. I then asked if they would be willing to donate their remaining clothing items to our mission for HON2011 and they readily agreed to donate them and for me to return at 2pm to collect the clothes.
A while later, we were looking at items in another sale and decided to asked the owners to donate their clothing items that do not sell. I spoke to a gentleman there and he told me I could return to collect them at noon. Judy and I returned at noon to find their sale had wrapped up and everything had been moved back into their garage. I rang the doorbell and a lady came to the door and greeted me. I told her I came to collect the clothing items and she walked me to the garage. The lady made the statement that she could not understand why churches send their people out of the country on missions when there was so much need here in our own community. God was working and I knew this because I did not hesitate to respond to her statement. I told her that we should be, or are on mission for 52 weeks out of the year, but in our case, we are on mission in our community for 51 weeks doing things like the ICU ministry, the Lil Blessings ministry and the Homeless ministry and then we go out of the country for 1 week out of the year. She accepted my explanation and said it made sense. At that point she told me she was looking for a church home. She said she had not been in town for long but most of her friends go the Bellevue. She asked me for the name of my church and where it was in OB. I gave her that information, told her we have 2 services and she could find one she would be comfortable with. I invited her to join us and emphasized how welcome she would be.
After Judy and I had returned home with the clothing items, I realized the magnitude of our encounter. Here we were, sharing our joy, preparing for our mission in 2011 when it turns out that we were on a mission at the same time. How awesome is that?
And by the way, if we had used the GPS that morning, we would have never gone in the direction of that neighborhood and not have spoken to this lady.
God is amazing at how he works.
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