God Does More

For over a decade, Bethel Lutheran Church has held an enormous rummage sale with the expressed purpose of raising money to support our families who send their children to Christian schools and those going into professional church work.  Simple.  People give us their old stuff, we sell it to people who want to buy it.  It’s a fund raiser.

But God does more…

I can’t tell you about the amount of money we’ve raised these last few years.  But I can tell you about the relationships we’ve built as we work together to put on this crazy sale.  There’s a unique bond that’s developed when you carry a sofa sleeper or a chest freezer down a flight of stairs, or fold hundreds of clothes, or look at something and say, “What’s that?”

God does more.

Anyone who says that children can’t contribute in a significant way to a significant cause needs a significant adjustment in their thinking.  Or they need to peek in on a Saturday as we prepare the sale or on the days of the sale.  There are kids everywhere and they work just as hard as the adults.  Sure, they need more guidance, but where else in life do children get to work on something this big as a valued member of the team and see the results in the end?  Priceless.

God does more.

Every year we have the privilege of serving new immigrants, fresh off the plane, who come and find everything they need to start a new life thousands of miles from home for thousands less than even the thrift store.  Or how about the people who come on the first day and buy up entire sections of our sale just to send the items to Africa?  I always smile when I think that our old silver choir robes are swaying on the shoulders of praise and worship singers somewhere in Africa!

God does more.

Then there is the witness of love and the deep conversations about life and faith that naturally happen along the way.  When a crew comes to pick up items from a house and shows love, respect and joy, people notice.  We show them Jesus.  Sometimes we even get to tell them about him. Last year that happened during one of the days of the sale.  We prayed that God would use us to be a witness of his love, and that day we had a great conversation with a neighbor which led to the baptism of her daughter, which led to confirmation classes, which will lead to…

God doing more.

There is no doubt.  We need to raise the money this year just as much as we did last year or the year before!  But there is a lot more going on with this sale than just raising money.  God is working.  So when you gather together with your brothers and sisters in Christ to do somethign that could be seen as mundane, remember that if God can use a rummage sale to do his work, he can use your event too.  God bless you!  He’s doing more!