Skip to main content

In My Spare Time

used books ready to go
Like I have any! Between homeschooling, ministry stuff, housework and just life somehow over the past month I've found time for a yard sale, a flea market day, and a book fair. All were to raise funds for expenses for my dear oldest son's mission trip later this summer to Mozambique. Needless to say today after this series of Saturday events, I needed some quiet afternoon time to regroup and re-coop!

 
book fair
The logistics of having such sales in Brazil is much different than the States.  Yard sales are practically unheard of.  To have one you almost have to educate your guest and neighbors first.  I sent out personal invitations to spread the word as well as small signs in local stores, signs on the street the day before and of the sale and even made a Facebook Event for the sale inviting all my local fb pals.  Even so, it was not well attended though sales were fair.

The day I went to the "flea market" was pretty much a bust.  Here anyone can spread a drop cloth and sell whatever you want in the town square on Saturdays and Sundays.  I only took used clothes and a few trinkets.  {I'll try to post a photo later.}
happy customer

lots of lookers
Of the three fund-raisers the book fair was the most work but the most enjoyable. I love books and found it pleasurable to sell some of mine and talk with ESL students as they chose their purchases. It was hard work as all the many boxes of books had to be taken to the big city by car. The book fair was inside the building of an ESL school.   The book had to go in the car, and come out, and go back in. It was work. Believe me, books are heavy!  Thankfully I had my middle boy along for the ride to help out.  I loved talking to all the students and just being out and about.

My small efforts in  and off themselves will only help to pay some of William's mission trip expenses, but I felt like I wanted to do these things to show the ladies in our church and others that even the Americans had to work hard to raise the money for their boy to go to Africa.  And if I could do it through such wild and crazy methods, maybe others on the mission team could catch the wave and creatively raise the funds for their own trip.  I wanted these labors of love to be just that - the offerings of my heart.

So there you go - the crazy things I do in my spare time!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by! Leave me a message if you would.

Popular posts from this blog

The Sun is Not Yet Set

  Byron, the guy in the white helmet, turns 61 today.  That's our son, Byron the Third in the black helmet.  He'll be 30 on his next birthday at the end of the year.   My husband and I were close to thirty ourselves when we had our first son. Lately it seems that every other day or so someone wants to know "When we are going to retire?" Sometimes it feels more like, "When are you going to leave" is the real question, but that's a story for another post sometime. Has the sunset on our work and ministry in Brazil?  Is it time to hang our hats and pack it all up.  Are we too old? Too old for what?  Too old to tell others about the love of God?  Too old to preach and teach?  Too old to ride a motorcycle on dirt roads? Okay, you may have us on that last one!  It took a few days to recover from our 8 days of motorcycle travel with our oldest and his wife last month.  It took a few weeks to recover from all the bumps and aches of our ...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Promise Verse

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take:  when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This verse has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. When I was a high school senior at a Christian school in Virginia, Job 23:10 was chosen as our class theme verse. At our graduation commencement, the valedictorian and saludatorian in their addresses that day divided the verse in its two natural parts as a basis for the core of each one's address. I was the salutatorian of my senior class that year.  I chose to speak of how God would one day reward our faithfulness and thus, we should always strive to remain true. For many years though, the first part of the verse haunted me in a way. As a missionary especially when times were lonely or difficult, I assumed it was my "trial" or "test," and as such must be accepted in all humility. As I have grown older, I have begun to look more toward the pearly gates and have reconsidered the thr...
2 comments
Read more

Old Film, Same Message

A missionary colleague recently uploaded some old films made about the work in Brazil by Baptist Mid-Missions many years ago in the 1950's. Yesterday I was able to watch the first of the series.  All I can say is "Wow!  Things haven't changed much in Brazil.  And things haven't changed too much with the work of missions in Brazil either!" There are still donkey carts in the street.  They have better wheels nowadays! There are still people who live in grass huts and high apartment buildings, too. Bicycles are still many people's only means of transportation, if they are that lucky! Many roads in the interior towns are still paved with cobblestones, if they are paved at all. And yes, chickens are everywhere, even in big cities. Brazil still needs missionaries! That's right, Brazil is not evangelized and in no need of foreign missionaries today.  It still needs workers to spread the Good News of the Gospel and the Risen Saviour!  Sadly that part of t...
2 comments
Read more