Stories from the Talents Offering Project
Last Updated on Sunday, 30 May 2010 15:21
On the Sunday following the Haiti earthquake, Pastor Scott Sherwood preached on the Parable of the Talents -- then the church board passed out envelopes with small amounts of cash totalling $5,000 to each person in attendance. We were challenged to "Make All We Can" with what was in our envelopes then bring back the increase in 2 weeks for an offering for Haiti Relief.
Two weeks later, we brought back more than $37,000! And the money kept trickling in over the next few weeks, until we were finally able to write a check to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries for $40,000!
Today both girls hosted movie showings for Haiti. Annah's was this morning at 9am. We hadn't asked for an RSVP, so didn't know how many to expect. Annah had two great kids come to watch Charlotte's Web with us. They gave so generously that the money in her envelope for Haiti was quadrupled!!
This afternoont at 2pm, Sylvia hosted her showing of Wizard of Oz. She had 4 of her classmates attend--3 of her close girlie friends, and one little boy who quickly made buddies with Caeden. They were a fun bunch, and enjoyed lots of the brownies, kool-aid, fruit and popcorn we served! (See the popcorn on the floor?) They watched most of the movie, but also had fun joking around with each other. And, God bless them...they gave so generously; they more than doubled the large amount in Sylvia's envelope for Haiti!
Our family is participating in the Haiti Relief project in 2 ways....we received $25 from church...we used part of the money to buy stamps and mailed letters about the project along with the news article from the Pantagraph and mailed it to 20 people. These mailings went to people that do not attend our church, and we also invited them to attend! Each letter included a piece of artwork created by our two girls. They get to keep the artwork, and donations were suggested. Our girls had an artsale at church on Sunday and asked for small donations for their pieces. Many people were very generous! It's only Tuesday and we're already up to almost 5x the money God gave us to invest! I know it will be greatly increased by Sunday!
While our idea was not as creative (or time-consuming -- praise God for the hard work of those baking, knitting, etc!) as many we've seen, we decided to invite friends and family to join us to contribute money for God and his people in Haiti. We shared the news links via email and offered 2 carrots -- one was the use of our seed money to purchase a gift card that each donor would be eligible to receive in a drawing by contributing. We were also able to find matching funds to match what each person gave. In total, we raised $1,500 and with the matching gift, the total comes to $3,000. We are eagerly anticipating tomorrow's church service to see what God has done when we put everything together. The ability to tell others about our project and what God is able to do when we all work together for Him using our talents has been as exciting as raising the money!
I had been holding on to the money that was given to me for almost a week and a half and I had no idea what to do with it. I had just finished crocheting a baby blanket for my sister-in-law and I had left over yarn and decided to make a little hat for the baby. I had never made a hat before. I took the adorable hat to work and showed a few co-workers. They talked about how cute it was and one said, "That looks like something I would go buy at a boutiqe." It wasn't until then that I decided what I was going to do. That night, Tuesday night, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a whole bunch of cute baby yarn. I spent the next 2 nights crocheting as many hats as I could. With the permission from the admin at the pre-school I work at, I set up a table and sold the hats for $8 a piece or 2 hats for $15. The hats sold really well and there were many shocked that all the money was going to Haiti Relief. I even sold some hats via facebook. I am sending hats to Kansas City, Tennesee, and California!
When this project of the talents came up, I at first panicked. What could I do? How could I possibly make a profit? I was at such a loss. I took my envelope (with the $10) I got from early morning service and did what Pastor Scott suggested. I PRAYED.
I have done a lot of E-bay. Anyone that does it now will tell you it is a “buyers market”. Not a lot of money to be made selling. I decided though, to take a leap of faith. Through prayer, I would subtitle the item with “100% of sale to go to Haiti Relief.” I would also dedicate the first paragraph of the description to what the project was about. I got the item from a dear friend in Christ, and used the $10 to pay listing fees, and help pay the shipping. I also allowed a check Payable to “Nazarene Compassionate Ministries” for the total cost.
I expected at best, a $100. When the auction ended I shipped immediately without waiting for payment. God was faithful and I got two checks for a total of $155. More important - I got to share with many online, about what our church was doing. I believe that one of the BEST things that came out of this project, is that we got to share our faith with our friends, neighbors and total strangers through doing this. That is something I believe, we need to be doing more of ….
Okay, so this is going to sound a little bit (or maybe a lot!) convoluted but, hey, ours is not to question why; ours is just to follow the path God presents to us...
On Sunday, we each got an envelope - Kevin and Celia each got $5.00, I had $10.00 and Chelsea scored $20.00 - for a total of $40.00. We decided to pool our money and work together as a team on the project.
That Sunday evening, I went to our neighbor Craig's house. He is the Events Coordinator for Biaggi's in Bloomington. I explained what we were doing and asked him if I gave him $5.00, would he sell me a $10.00 Biaggi's gift card. I know, I know...not exactly a good deal for him, but Craig, being the generous soul he is, scratched his head a bit and said, "Hey, I can do better than that!" He ended up giving me five $10.00 gift cards and returned the original $5.00 to me. We were off to a good start!
Matt, Craig's housemate, walked in while this was all going on and offered to buy one of the gift cards. He gave me $20.00 and told me to keep the change. Then he turned around and said, "Oh, hey, I just remembered...I already have a gift card to Biaggi's. You can just have this one back." What a guy!
So I walked away with:
$50.00 worth of Biaggi's gift cardsa $20.00 billour original $40.00.
The next day, I was in our little IGA grocery store. An older woman was telling me about all the gift cards she got as Christmas presents...you know how it is in small towns; the local grocery store is the "go and gab" spot. She said, "I have so many gift cards and some are to places I've never even heard of "Pandera... Pandera... what's a Pandera?" I told her it was a "Panera" gift card and that it is a restaurant in Bloomington.Well, she said, "I'll probably never go."So, the Holy Spirit nudged me and I began telling this lady about our project and I offered her the same deal I had offered my neighbor. "If you really don't want the $10.00 Panera card, would you consider selling it to me for $5.00 so I can resell it to help raise money for Haiti?" I asked her.Without hesitation, she said, "It didn't cost me a dime. You can just have it." And so she gave it to me right there in the store.
So I walked out of the store with my groceries (of course) and:
our original $40.00the $50.00 worth of Biaggi's gift cardsa $20.00 billa $10.00 Panera gift card
At work, the following day, I asked a couple of people if they would like to buy any Biaggi's or Panera gift cards and one lady gave me $10.00 for the Panera card. Celia had taken the Biaggi's cards to work and her very generous co-workers bought all five of them for $50.00.
Now we had accumulated:
our original $40.00
a $20.00 bill
a $10.00 bill (Panera's)
$50.00 cash (Biaggi's)
Kevin's and my E-bay auctions finished, and we had netted $47.20 on a small pitcher we had bought for 50 cents at the church garage sale last summer (thanks to whoever donated the white and blue Arabia pitcher), plus an additional $151.35 for some books that us cost nothing because they were given to Kevin by a lady here in town for helping her drag some stuff out of her garage. The check just got here and we've added it to the stash.
Now we had accumulated:
our original $40.00a $20.00 billa $10.00 bill (Panera's)$50.00 cash (Biaggi's)$47.20 (pitcher)$151.35 (free books)
Celia baked up some of her special "Avanti" style bread into small loaves the next night and she sold 6 of them the following day at Eureka college and I sold 5 at the grade school where I work, for a total of $32.00 after expenses.
Now we had accumulated:
Well, we decided that we should go ahead and start spending some of our original money as directed so I bought a few copies of the book I wrote directly from the publisher (low overhead) and have put them for sale over at the junior high and high school teacher's lounge. I wrote a note explaining our project, included a copy of the article from The Pantagraph, said a prayer and walked away. I will be going over on Friday to see if any of the copies sold. If so, all the money will go back into our stash for the Haiti Relief Fund. I am a little nervous putting out the money when selling the book is not a "sure thing" but I remember Pastor Scott saying that each person does according to their ability so I thought I would give it a try. I'll know on Friday afternoon if any of them sold.our original $40.00a $20.00 billa $10.00 bill (Panera's)$50.00 cash (Biaggi's)$47.20 (pitcher)$151.35 (free books)$32.00 (bread)(and we will still have things to add to this list by Sat. afternoon, we hope)
We also spent money on baking ingredients for a bake sale to be held at our local (LeRoy) Busey Bank, who very generously are allowing us to set up on Sat. morning when they are their busiest. We have been baking, baking, baking! And praying, praying, praying. Chelsea is coming home on Thursday evening and I imagine she will be baking all day long for the sale, as will Celia and myself. I just wish we had an extra oven!
I think that the best thing that I am taking away from this experience is this:When I explain to people what our church is doing and where the original $5000.00 came from (surplus), almost everyone has said something like "Oh my, why didn't you just hang on to the money? You know that you will have a month or two where you don't have enough to meet the budget." It's then that I realize what a powerfully faith-based church I am attending. I answer, "God will provide the money that we need when we need it" and I know that these words are true.
Our family is so blessed to be a part of this church family and a part of this effort for Haiti. Thank you to everyone who organized it and gave us the opportunity to go outside of ourselves and realize that we are so much more than just a building and individuals...we are God's people, doing God's work for those in need. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?
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