I have been wanting to write about the yardsale that we had a couple weeks ago, but I have not been able to find words that expresses what my heart would like to convey. It all began when my sister-in-law and her family moved to Argentina. They left a lot of things that they could not take with them. She said that she was going to take many of the things to the Re-U-Zit shop, so I suggested that she leave them and allow us to have a yardsale. We could put the proceeds towards the adoption. So, as I thought about the yardsale, I decided to ask other friends if they had things that they would like to "get rid of" that we could sell at the sale. It turns out that about 15 families were willing to go through their house and give us items that they no longer wanted or needed.
You should have seen out basement! It took about 3 weeks of constant work to get it all organized. We had a lot of children's clothing (especially girl's clothes) and I wondered what I would do with the clothing that didn't sell. Should I keep it in case we get girls? Should I just give it to The Salvation Army? The thought crossed my mind, "Wow, it would be great to send these clothes to Haiti or take them to Ethiopia." But the thought quickly left, because I just didn't know how I would do it at that point in time, and I didn't have the time to act on my thought.
Now, as I was working on the yardsale, I had a friend who was working on a bakesale to do during the yardsale. She has a beautiful heart, and is very tender towards the plight of the orphan. She wanted to do something, and this was her offering.
As the day approached, we kept looking at the weather. You guessed it, they were calling for RAIN! I tried to find a place indoors to have the sale, but to no avail. We were just going to do it, and trust the Lord to do what He had planned.
Something else was going on inside of me as I was organizing the items and talking to friends. I began to pray that God would use this beyond just us making a couple hundred dollars to put towards the adoption expenses. I truly didn't even know how to ask God to use it. So we put signs around telling people that all the proceeds will go to help bring two children home from Ethiopia. Greg and I wore adoption t-shirts. (I'm going to post a picture of the t-shirts. We need to get more batteries for our camera first.)
NOW...the day of the yardsale/bakesale! Let me list all the ways that God worked!
1. It was a cloudy day, which took care of the hot sun, and not a drop of rain fell from the sky.
2. A dear friend took off from work the Friday before to help and slept over (She didn't ask me if I needed her to do it, she just did it. She knows that I'm not good at asking for help.) She got up at 5am on Sat. We couldn't have gotten everything out without her and my mother-in-law, who always has a spirit willing to help.
3. We met neighbors who are adopting a little girl from China. They live on a street behind our street, so they weren't people we would just happen to run into or meet.
4. Our neighbors across the street came over. He has been battling cancer, and our hearts have wanted to show love to them, but beyond trying to talk to them when we see them outside, we haven't known how to help. They have always been somewhat aloof, and they do not know the Lord. I pray that we can be
a blessing to them, and that they will know Jesus.
5. We made $1200.00 between the yardsale and the bakesale. We didn't have any big ticket items. I was floored. I was really hoping to make $500, and I thought that was a stretch.
6. AND...my most favorite thing of the day....at 5:45 am our first customer came. He said that he had just gotten off of work and saw our sign as he was driving home. He said, "I hope you don't mind me coming so early, but my wife and I are Haitian and we are taking a container to Haiti. I am trying to buy things to put in the container." He bought different sized clothing and shoes. (I didn't charge him what I had listed. In fact, I felt badly for charging him at all. But it was 5:45am, and I just couldn't give him everything.) But he said that he had $100 to spend and he would spend it at our sale. So, I got his phone #, and told him that I would call him at the end of the day and would donate clothing that they could take it to Haiti. Truth be told, there was a piece of me that was suspicious, but he did not ask for anything for free. He wanted to pay for his items, and he bought such a variety that my doubts were put aside. Besides, hadn't I asked God to use this for more than just making money?
7. A couple hours later, a woman came who was also buying things for Haiti. She is going with a group (next week) to visit orphanages. I got her phone number as well!
As I said, we had a ton of kid's clothing. A lot sold, but we had about 7 or 8 boxes left over and all of it is going to Haiti. This by far, was this most amazing thing about our yardsale! It is a far cry from all that those sweet children need, but it was something that God saw fit to use and we are so grateful!
This was a long post, but I wanted to share how God worked beyond my expectations!
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