Well I’m not sure where to begin. This weekend was crazy, stressful, emotional, yet rewarding. Back in April I decided to do a BBQ Chicken fundraiser on June 21st. I ordered 1000 halves of BBQ chicken and was pretty optimistic that I could see all this chicken. I had heard of many success stories of people who had sold 1000-2000 halves in one day so I figured this would be a piece of cake. Well…I was wrong.
Saturday, June 21st came around and I picked up my 1000 halves and made my way to our carwash that we own and I set up a tent and put up 4 signs hoping to bring in a lot of people. Our carwash is located on a main road so I figured with all the traffic I would be done selling by 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Well I was wrong about that too; it didn’t help that we had competition selling chicken right down the street as well. My dad and brother, Derek, headed out and peddled chicken and were able to sell about 70 halves.
Around 1:30 my sister-in-law, Janna, headed out to Berlin to set up another location. At 2:00 we packed up everything at the carwash and headed out to Berlin to join Janna. At this point we still had about 730 halves to sell. I was still pretty optimistic, but then Satan attacked and the tears came. I was frustrated that it wasn’t going according to my plan; I was frustrated that God wasn’t answering my prayer. Then, I asked God again to help me sell this chicken so I could just be done with it. I asked him to help me sell 730 halves in 2 hours. I knew if anyone could make this happen, God could.
When we went to Berlin my mom stayed at the tent and my dad and I both headed out to peddle more chicken. We each sold about 1 ½ coolers full (each cooler had about 56 halves in it).
So 6:00pm rolled around and we had only sold about 500 halves. We still had 9 ½ coolers left of chicken. At this point we were all tired, discouraged, confused, frustrated, and stuck with A LOT of chicken. Mom, Dad, and I headed to our church and started packing up all the chicken into bags…we still weren’t sure what we were going to do.
Then we decided to set up a location at 4 different churches on Sunday morning (the 22nd). Someone from my dad’s work, Amy Miller, volunteered to try to sell 2 coolers of chicken at her church. My uncle, Con, agreed to make an announcement at their church; my dad called someone else at another church and they agreed to let me set up a table at their church. My mom, Derek, and Janna set up another table at my church.
Walnut Creek Foods, the company my brother and I work for agreed to let me use their cooler to lay all the bagged up chicken in to stay cold overnight. (500 halves of chicken takes up a lot of space!)
Sunday morning dad and I packed up the chicken and headed out to our stations. My mom, brother and sister-in-law set up at my church, Pleasant View. My dad set up at Light in the Valley; I set up at Walnut Creek Mennonite and Amy Miller set up at Berean Community Church.
Long story short, after selling to all these churches I ended up having only 2 coolers (about 80 halves) leftover. Rena Mullet, a member of my church said that she would take all the leftovers and freeze them and then they would take them along for church camping. (We usually do one meal together when the church goes camping).
It was all gone. Taken care of. NO MORE CHICKEN TO DEAL WITH! I cried, smiled, laughed, and thanked God.
We had lunch at my brother and sister-in-laws house and counted all the money. When all was said and done, I had broke even and made exactly what I was hoping to make. I was shocked! I cried, smiled, laughed and thanked God all over again! A huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders and I couldn’t stop smiling.
So here are the lessons learned from this experience:
1. God does answer prayers…just not in my timing. (I can pray and pray all I want but God is going to make things happen when he wants them to happen.)
2. There is such a thing as being too optimistic. (If I ever do this again…which will probably never happen, I need to be a bit more realistic).
3. Trust in God and He will provide. (He provided above and beyond what I could have hoped for…it just took two days instead of one to complete that goal.)
4. Never underestimate God. (Seriously, He’s so great)
5. Pre-sell, pre-sell, pre-sell. Don’t order 1000 halves unless you have pre-sold about 500 of them. Even then I don’t recommend 1000 halves. Or do it on a weekend earlier in the summer. (There were about 4 other BBQ Chicken fundraisers happening on the 21st.)
Finally, lots and lots of thank-you’s:
Thank you Mom and Dad for never giving up on me and for sacrificing your whole Saturday and half of Sunday to helping me sell this chicken. I would have NEVER been able to do this without you. Seriously I have the best parents in the world.
Thank you to Derek and Janna (my brother and sister-in-law). You guys are grand! I wouldn’t have been able to sell this chicken without your help. You gave up your Saturday and part of Sunday to help me get rid of this ridiculous amount of chicken. Derek, thank you for helping peddle some chicken. Janna, thank you for standing out by the road holding a sign! 
Thank you to Walnut Creek Foods for allowing me to use the walk-in cooler to store the insane amount of chicken.
Thank you to EVERYONE who bought chicken. I probably didn’t know 75-80% of the people who bought chicken but each and every one of them was so generous with their donation. So thank you!
Walnut Creek Mennonite, Berean Community, and Light in the Valley church members, thank you, thank you, thank you, for taking about 400 halves of chicken off of my hands and for being SO GENEROUS!
Last but not least, A LOT OF THANK YOUs goes to Pleasant View Mennonite church (my home church). I am completely blown away by your generosity and willingness to support me in this adventure. Seriously, I don’t even know what to say.
God is good. All the time!
*The next blog post will probably have a VERY EXCITING announcement so watch for that one!
