It was a boys table, size 10 -12, and it was one of the fullest boys tables we had when the event started and now I looked at it and the pants were gone and there were a few shirts left, as I straigthened up what was left a man walked in and I heard him saying to himself, please have size 12 please have size 12, my heart sunk, and I immediately wanted to look at him and tell him I would take him shopping right then as I knew we were all out of that size, at the moment it didn't matter to me that we had already helped so many, in that moment I felt like this was going to be a complete failure because to me having someone walk through that door anticipating there need would be met and then failing at that, that felt worse than any good we could have done. I looked up at him and smiled and then I looked back down at the table willing it to grow some pants, not even joking, I was like, begging it to sprout them! As I got ready to tell him we were out of size twelve a lady from my church walked in the door and up to me with a tote full of pants and said "here, these are a size twelve, look can you believe my son never even took the tags off!!!" OH MY GOSH, I didn't know if I should cry or jump up and down and act like a crazy fool!!!!! I mean my table just grew pants, it was amazing. The gentlemen was very grateful and said to me that he could now let his middle son wear his oldest sons pants and these would cloth his oldest son! Across the room there was a woman looking for clothes for her daughter, she had some success and thanked us as she left, she came back a little while later carrying a bag of clothes. She said that these were clothes her daughter had outgrown and she wanted to give back to our cause and that she was so thankful for the clothes she had found in her own daugther's size. The clothes she brought replenished another table that was near empty. A couple hours later an elderly lady walked in and in her hand she had three pairs of pants, I went to lay them on a table and minutes later another elderly lady came in looking for the same size... JESUS MET US THERE ALL DAY LONG!!! I kept SEEING Him in so many tangible ways. The first time you may have been able to call it a coincidence if you are a non-believer, and the second time could have been luck but by the third time you would have been in awe!!! It was a modern day fish and bread story straight out of the bible!! I feel like the amount of clothes that exited the church that day had to far surpass the amount that we put on those tables on Friday. And as if this wasn't enough, Jesus must have really wanted to show off! This is the part of the story where a young single mom enters in, I don't want to give out to many details because I want to respect her privacy but believe me when I say she has her hands full of babies, she didn't enter into the church that day expecting to find anything more than free clothes, she definitely didn't come knowing that she would leave an impact on 5 ladies at cornerstone but she did, and the next day she allowed her little girl to attend church and Sunday school at our church!!! Can we get a WOOT WOOT!!! Yup Jesus, He met us there at our little ol' clothing drive, in a church in a small town in the middle of cornfields, He was there amongst us and man do I wish I could have given Him a high five and a big hug because I will NEVER be the same. I may look the same, and even act the same but I will be forever humbled at getting to witness a small town country miracle that day!
"We only have here five loaves of bread and two fish, they answered, "Bring them here to me," Jesus said and he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up the twelve basketful's of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men besides woman and children"- Matthew 14:9
Be Blessed Today!!!! Jesus Loves YOU!
video courtesy of youtube.com
AWESOME!!!! Tears.... Got to love Jesus when he lays it on you, hu?? SO glad your project was so amazing and grew you too!
ReplyDeleteWow DeAnna, so awesome. Brought tears to my eyes...isn't it interesting how we continually doubt Him yet He is constantly proving Himself to us?
ReplyDeleteThis is a GREAT idea! Can I ask how you advertised it? Did you post it in the newspaper? What did you say in the ad?
ReplyDeleteThis is so amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone!! I am still processing it all but it was truly breathtaking!! Jenny I adverstised by taking flyers to our elementary school and they put them in each child's back pack. Our school just had me print them off in bundles of 25 for each class of kids!!! We also promoted it alot on facebook and through our church email list and the school counselour contacted the at risk families at the school. I never made it to the newspaper! The day off we also put signs up around town like you would for a garage sale! Thanks for taking the time to read and for stopping by our bog!!!!Do you have a blog I would love to check it out! Gretchen I hopped over to yours and can't wait to see how your next posts play out too!!! Erica, He definitely proved to me that He is always in control of every single detail!!!!
ReplyDeleteEver since I read your post, I've been sorting through the details of how I can do this in my area. I'm not sure how big of a response I would get from donations, but I want to be sure that I am prepared! Our church is currently in a small building until we can get the new one built, so I'm trying to figure out where we can store the clothes and where we can hold the event.
ReplyDeleteI do actually have a blog (that I'm always fighting to keep up with since I have 3 little ones at home!) so if you want to check it out, it's http://my365withafamilyof5.blogspot.com/
Jenny, I didn't know what to expect donation wise, I held four different drop off days, which I put into our church bulletin, I also put it out on my facebook page, my churchs page, and then asked my friends to spread the word too!! Before I started collecting donations I contact a gentlemen in town that owns storage sheds and asked if he would donate one for a period of time, Once I told him that it was for an event that would help the commmunity he gave me one no problem so I highly suggest that!! If you have any other questions along the way feel free to contact me at iptappdgasen@yahoo.com I am excited to hear how your event goes!!!!! God will make sure you have the things you need I defnitely have no doubts about that now!!
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