Rummage Sale Mahem

That’s what I'm calling it.

I’m up and over my eyebrows with rummage. Rummage here. Rummage there.  Rummage, rummage everywhere.  We can hardly walk through the garage and we have more items stored outside in a covered trailer. Yikes!

My intentions were – are – good.  In an attempt to help raise funds for our team to travel to Zambia, Africa this summer, on a mission trip to help at the Villages of Hope orphanage, (click here to read more about the trip) I thought it was a good idea to host a rummage sale.

Really (I’m partly trying to convince myself, when I say this), I still do think it is a good idea, it’s just that – well, let’s say – organizing a rummage sale is not really in line with my gifting, and perhaps, not even in my skill set.

Overall, I am an organizer, but sorting and displaying the equivalent of a small store’s load of merchandise, is not my thing.  It stresses me out.

However, I’m leaning in to the process and along with the help of other team members and friends, we are making progress.

People have been so generous in giving us items to help us out.  From tables to tea cups and stereos to snowsuits, we have clothes, toys, books, pots and pans, pillows, furniture and much, much more.  You get the picture.  Basically, your common rummage sale fair AND some interesting items to keep it, well – interesting. 

There is one piece that has brought some added delight in to the process -- a bizarre little pink, ceramic weaner dog. 

We’ve yet to figure out its purpose, but I’m getting a kick out of it. I think it's cute, in a silly, whimsical way.

I’m thinking toothpick holder?

Someone else suggest it was a planter?

One other friend suggested that perhaps it would make a cute business card holder? I like that.

A Q-tip holder?

I’m open for ideas! 

Maybe I’ll even sneak it out of the sale and keep it as a reminder … a reminder that, even when we aren’t good at something, it’s still good to do it for the Lord.  I’m counting on the fact that He knows my motivation and will bless our team with some additional income, and teach me a little something in the process -- like maybe, patience?

Feel free to pray for us J -- and come and shop if you’re in the area. You just never know what  practical (or bizarre) treasure you may find. J

My Provider

I am always amazed, and I'm not quite sure why, how God does provide us with just what we need and often times with more than we can imagine.

Over the past weeks I started a list of the things that God has given us each day, as we have walked through this difficult time. Sometimes it is a phone call, a meal, a note from a friend, a gift, a moment of silence, God's peace.Last week, a group of friends, affectionately called "the moms" came to my home to help my children decorate for Christmas. They circled around them with love and laughter, inspecting each ornament with each child, before helping them to hang it on the tree, sharing in their joy. They ate popcorn and pizza and placed decorations all around my house, bringing Christmas to our family, when I was feeling overwhelmed with even hanging a stocking.

Today it came in a most creative and unusual way. Friends of ours invited us to their home for lunch and a birthday party for Jesus. My friend pulled up old craft projects that a retired teacher friend had given her, years ago. To my surprise, there were kits of make your own sequin ornaments, and one of them was a kit for a round, blue ornament just like the one that I made when I was sick with the chicken pox, in third grade. I even still have it!

For years I have looked for kits like this one, where you thread a bead and a sequin on to a small pin, then pushing it in to the Styrofoam form to create a sparkling ornament. And I never saw one, until today, and it was the exact same ornament that I had made in the early 1970's.I believe that God really is in the details. Seeing that ornament kit and working on similar ones with my girls this afternoon reminded me that God knows every detail. It brought me joy to create with my children.

Although a very small gift, it was an important one as I was reminded that God even cared to bring up a memory from childhood. He does provide for us. In this season of suffering I see Him in so many ways, big and small, and am learning more about God as my Provider.

Psalm 111:5 says "He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever." Today, I praise Him for His provision of just what I need.