we've participated in several city wide garage sales with much success, so I planned on sharing the treasures I was finding with others. then I started thinking...mark and I have been so blessed this year- special family moments, unexpected work bonuses and raises, family health- all blessing from God. so how could I use this garage sale to bless others?
my first thought was a "free garage sale." every item would be free to a good home, which I first heard about from flylady. then I thought "dollar stores are so popular right now, what about a dollar sale?" after brainstorming with mark, we decided to price each item at $1 and donate all the proceeds to our local food pantry.
after paying the entrance fee and being listed on the city wide map, late last week my enthusiasm for the idea had slowed down. thinking about the time I would need to invest in the final clean outs and setting outs discouraged me. but my ever faithful husband made the final call that yes the dollar garage sale would happen!
mark created and printed five signs to explain the purpose of our sale. I wasn't convinced (in fact mocked his belief that shoppers would read the signs) anyone would read the signs and that everyone would be asking us how much items were. boy was I ever wrong. each and every person who came up the driveway stopped and read mark's sign posted on our "garage sale ladder".
the day had no early shoppers, but was officially started after this van load of family and friends attended our sale.
we were having the sale to give back to our community, yet our community gave back to us on that special saturday. comments like "this is my favorite garage sale because of what you're doing", "I can't find anything to buy, but here's a donation", "this is really great, what you're doing here". God was in every detail of the day- beautiful weather (it usually rains), grateful customers (for the deals and the purpose), and the blessing of people (some who will hopefully pass it on).
hopefully our little idea and garage sale will inspire others to pass blessings along. we may never see any of our customers again. we may never know which ones took our little idea and expanded it and made it bigger and better. we may never know, but God knows, and He blesses.
our goal was to raise $100; collecting $1 at a time this goal could have been difficult. but with God in every detail, this goal was blown away. we raised a total of $261 from sales! connor and I will deliver our $300 donation this thursday.
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