Yall, I had my FIRST WORLD RACE FUNDRAISER this weekend!
What did I do? I served all hoarders in Central Arkansas and had a yard sale! 🙂
Here are some things I learned about yard sales:
1. People will even try and get half off of a $1 item
*i tried not to giggle sometimes*
2. You will have people knocking on your door @ 6:30 even if you haven’t setup yet.
3. This is a hobby, for more men than women!
4. PRICE ITEMS AS YOU GOOOO!!!! The terrible-ness of yard sale prep is PRICING. By Thursday I found myself staring at the categorized clothes on the rack… hoping they would magically price themselves. My sister came in for the win finishing this, THANK YOU LORD.
5. Get ready to barter… like about any price. *see #1*
6. With all the prep work, late nights, and all the mess ups that went along with having MY first yard sale, THIS.WAS.A.BLESSING.
It was actually REALLY great. By noon of Friday I had totally forgot about my loss of sleep and stress that had went on for 2 days about this entire deal.
Me: why don’t people have these more often??
My sis: this is like child birth, you forget the pain after you get a good reward for your efforts!
TRUTH.
I was stressed about getting things done, stressed about not having enough stuff, stressed no one would come and it would have been a waste that my family made time to help, stressed this wouldn’t work and I had wasted time and effort on JUST getting like $200, etc. etc. etc.
*real talk… I dreamt of yard sales Thursday night*
I honestly can’t remember if I prayed about the entire deal.. I was focused on the task, and not the REAL reason I was raising money. I wasn’t thinking about the door I was pushing WIDE open to talk about Jesus and what he has done in my heart, as people parked on my street and walked up to look through the organized ‘stuff’ in and out of my garage.
Friday morning my FABULOUS parents and I got up at 5:30, started making coffee and eat breakfast before we started setting up. My sweet Mama brought home made biscuits (I should do a blog about my Mom’s WONDERFUL cooking — maybe during month 2 when I am salivating about everything. Anyways…) and we made eggs and coffee and joined hands to bless the food. My Daddy thanked the Lord for the food, and the hands that prepared it, and then asked the Lord to bless my efforts with this yard sale in order to make His name known to the nations I would be traveling to.
Gut check.
Oh yeah, THAT’S why I am doing this! I didn’t forget.. but no that hadn’t been my focus. I was stressed about the STUFF. I wasn’t focusing on the PURPOSE. Y’all, the sweet conversations the Lord allowed me to have with people was priceless.
I got to share my story, I got to listen to buyers stories. I felt like I encouraged people about what the Lord is doing around the world. I was given ‘good luck and god bless’ donations and tips over and over. GOD SHOWED UP BIG.
Does fundraising suck? Yes. Do I feel so overwhelmed, blessed, excited, compelled to talk about, and OVER JOYED about the Lord’s hand on all of this? HECK YES.
This is good. This is a good thing for my walk and the start of this journey. Let us always be on board to talk Jesus to lonely ears and discouraged souls. Let a yard sale be a mission field guys. I dare ya.
To God Be The Glory,
Anna
P.S. Raised $1200!!!! WOOT! WOOT!
