God's Faithfulness

Hi everyone. Today has been one of those days where people tell you it will happen, but you never really expect it in your own life.

Today was the big day of the garage sale. We woke up at 5:30 this morning and headed over to the church. My team and I have been working hard on this garage sale for a month or so now. I honestly have the best team. They have dug into the trenches with me and had my back the whole way. We made it to church by seven, put up signs and started putting things out. People were already looking through stuff and we had barely made it out the door with the first load. It was ridiculous.

There were a few things I would have done differently. Like, I underestimated how much change I needed and we ran out of bags for people to take their stuff in. We could have used more help. We had to rearrange things as the day went on to try to sell them. Whatever. I prayed this morning in the car with Jared before we pulled out of our apartment complex, that we would have tons of people, but they would be spread out over the time we would be open and we would not be overwhelmed. And that's exactly what God did!

As I was watching, we did sell some big ticket items. We sold a ton of toys and clothes. But these things were going at like $0.25. This cute little kid came up with a puzzle and a quarter and set them on the table and then just smiled at us like it was his birthday. So I'm adding things up as the day goes on. I know what I sold just to the church body "pre-sale" and I know how much the vendors paid to set up booths. So I had figured between all that and the stuff that was selling today, I would have around $600 at the end of the day. I was discussing with parents what our next fundraiser would be and when.

We finally put everything away, cleaned up and sat down to count the money. I was only half paying attention as I put tables back in our cafe. Suddenly, one of my team members told me to come over as they counted. I was shocked to watch the small numbers grow, and grow, and grow to suddenly, the total came out to well over $1,000.

This is where the whole, "people tell you it will happen, but you never really expect it in your own life" moment comes. I remember people telling me that if I just kept working for the Lord, no matter how hard or daunting or frustrating it gets, God will bless it. I had worked hard on this garage sale with only the help of my small (but amazing) team and was really wondering if it all was going to be worth it. We had just counted the money and God gave us over double what I had expected. When I realized what God had done and that ALL the kids that had participated had camp paid for, I honestly started crying. I was so overwhelmed.

I don't have the opportunity to come and sit and have coffee with everyone like I want to in life. It's just not physically possible. But to anyone that reads this, this is my encouragement to you (over coffee of course). You may feel in a place where God is silent, where you work tirelessly for him and have nothing to show for it. All I can say is, don't give up. Moses had to run to the desert and hide before he was asked to part the Red Sea. I firmly believe there are seasons in life where God has to teach us things and grow us a bit before we are ready to do the amazing things God has for us. It may seem like a desert at the time, but when you look back you are going to know that it prepared you for the amazing things God does in your life!

"This saying is trustworthy:

If we died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we deny him, he will also deny us.

If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself."

^{~ 2 Timothy 2:11-13}