Garage Sale Success!

Hey y'all!! The garage sale was today and it was a HUGE success!!! I made a total of $342.45! I am super excited and extremely grateful for the many blessings God lavished upon me today! Here is just some of it:

As of early this morning I didn't even have tables for my garage sale and had no way of getting any either! (This is a big no-no in garage sale world...) So after freaking out a little, Esther and I just started doing what we could. Then, at 7:30am (garage sale didn't start until 8), a truck starts pulling up to the house and I think it's just someone who saw our signs and wants to buy something (which I didn't even have cash to give change to anybody yet... another no-no!). It turns out to be someone from church and he asks if we need help with anything. He then realizes our need for tables and offers to go get tables from the church and bring them to us!! HUGE BLESSING!!!

Then, around 11ish, there is quite a large group of people walking around shopping. I tried to make it to every customer and give them one of my fliers and talk with them so I am doing this even with a large crowd. I walk over to a gentleman and start telling him about why I am doing this garage sale, what it benefits, where I am going and why. He starts asking me more specific questions than normal and I notice he has an accent but I am not sure where it is from. We talk for a few minutes and then... *deep breath* he tells me he is FROM CZECH REPUBLIC!!!!! We then talk for about 30-40 minutes about Czech, their culture, food, currency, safety, etc. It was SUCH a blessing to talk with him and learn more about this foreign place I will be living for a year!!! It was AWESOME!!!

Needless to say, today was a GREAT day!!! It was a lot of work but it was worth every bit of it!!! Thanks to those of you who donated, helped me sort and organize sale items, allowed me to camp out in your garage/driveway all day, helped today at the garage sale and everyone who bought things today!!! Without you, it would have been so much harder and MUCH more stressful!!!

Now that I have some money, I am going to try to get some shirts to sell also!! If you have any design ideas, please let me know! I am very open to ideas currently! Also, if you know of places that do t-shirts for a good price, please let me know!! Thank you again!!

Prayer Requests:
-I would continue to be grateful to God for everything He has done!
-God to continue to prepare my heart and the heart of those I will be in contact with
-Through fundraising, others would see the Love that is Christ!

Following Him every step of the way,
Tia

Garage Sale in Nacogdoches

Help Send Tia to the Czech Republic!

GARAGE SALE

1/28/2012

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

331 CR 2153, Nacogdoches, Texas

All proceeds go to my mission trip into the Czech Republic where I will be teaching conversational English to adolescents and rescuing women from the sex trade.

And we're off...

The fundraising has begun! I met with a good friend of mine today to start the fundraising process! I need to raise $15,000 total in a year and a half! My goal is $1,000 each month! I am looking at getting a PayPal set up soon!

For those of you who are not quite sure what this is all about:

I will be leaving July 2013 for the Czech Republic! I will be over there until the following June teaching conversational English in a middle school or high school classroom! I am going through Teach Overseas and will be with a team while I am there! I will be teaching the first half of the day and will be involved in ministry work within the community the second half of the day! I am looking forward to seeing how God opens doors (and closes some...) as He prepares me in the next 18 months! 

Feel free to post any questions you have or any fundraising ideas you think I could use! Also, search my Facebook page titled "Send Tia to Czech Republic" and "Like" it! 

Things you can be praying for:

Perseverance through this fundraising journey

Strength in Him

Focus on how I can bring Him the MOST glory!

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Following in Faith,

Tia

Sick As Your Secrets

Sick As Your Secrets

She crawls out of bed, slips on her jeans.

All the while, he is sound asleep.

She sneaks out of the room, quiet as can be

So he doesn’t hear her cries of her feeling so cheap.

She’s done it again- run to the arms of a man

Gut-wrenching guilt, she can hardly stand.

“God is love.” She knows that line.

She’s memorized it well and repeats it all the time.

Only God knows her secret- God and the men;

Six, seven, eight; she’s lost count- maybe it’s ten!

She’s put on a pedestal, she’s a Christian for goodness sake.

Under a microscope she lives, but she’s learned to hide her mistakes.

“You’re as sick as your secrets,” someone once said.

That makes her pretty sick; if only they knew who was in her bed.

She wants to seek the Lord, wants to know Him better

But can’t get past this wall? She wonders, will she ever?

Christ died for her, for you and for me

But will she ever live like it or understand what the Sacrifice really means?

Our sin was laid upon the Cross and buried in a grave.

She wants to confess but could she be that brave?

“People will judge me, they always do!”

But what if we welcomed her, with Love and with Truth?

We are a building full of sinners, no better than she.

She needs arms reaching out in love; she needs you and she needs me!

Let’s show her the grace God graciously granted us,

Forgiveness as well, the way He always has and always does.