ASSEMBLIES OF GODby Thomas C. Campbell
Recently, my son, Tommy, came up with the goal to raise $1,000 for BGMC. He participated in a bike-a-thon and raised $305. Of that $305, Tommy gave $190 of his own money.
Tommy had been saving his allowance for awhile, and he asked me, "Dad, should I give my $190 toward BGMC or save it for an iPod?"
"I couldn’t save for an iPod if I were you,” I said, “I would save up for an iPad."
Tommy said in response, "I think I’ll give it to BGMC because we have everything, and the people in Madagascar don't even have clean water to drink."
We thought about having a garage sale to reach Tommy's goal of $1,000 because we knew the bike-a-thon alone wouldn’t help Tommy reach his goal. Shortly after the bike-a-thon, Pastor Kelly shared in kids’ church about a girl who raised $1,500 for BGMC by having a garage sale. This was a confirmation to Tommy that he needed to do the garage sale.
We cleaned out our storage area of items we weren’t using anymore. Tommy's older sister, Melody, cleaned out her room of old clothes and donated an American Girl doll for the sale. Tommy's younger sister, Rosie, went through her old clothes and toys she no longer used. Tommy gathered old clothes and toys from his room.
Melody also made signs that we posted at the garage sale. One sign read, "All proceeds go to Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge." Another sign read, "Help us raise our goal of $1,000 for Madagascar. We have everything, and they don't even have clean water to drink."
The garage sale was on Friday and Saturday, June 3 and 4. On Friday we raised $500. Friday went very well, so much that we were running out of items to sell.
That evening we were able to find two more bins full of items we could sell. We also made some cookies and lemonade and bought some bottled water to sell on Saturday. We counted the money we had made that day. Then we read the Scripture passage from Matthew 25:31-40, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” We explained to Tommy that providing water for those who are thirsty is like giving water to Jesus. Then we prayed that God would help us raise the rest of the money.
On Saturday, the sale was slower, but Tommy and his older sister began to pray that cars would begin to stop by. And they did. We were able to raise $250 that day to meet Tommy's goal of $1,000 for BGMC!