"Uganda or Bust" Garage Sale

Garage sales are an interesting breed ain't they? You never know what you'll find or the types of folks who will show up. The "Uganda or Bust" garage sale that Devin and I had this past weekend was no exception.

The generously donated items given to us by our amazing friends and family

Thank you to my brother and sister-in-law for allowing us to invade their always pristine garage for two days.

It was interesting to sort through the collection of items that people donated for our sale - clothing styles spanning (at least) two decades, workout tapes that - despite the best of intentions - never seemed to make it out of the box, brand new books and some well-loved, along with all sorts of odds and ins - all with a story. There was one particular set of male unmentionables that certainly must have had a story behind (ahem) them and I was glad the family member or friend whom they belonged to remained anonymous. 

The variety of people who show up for garage sales are even more interesting. I think we met the best and the worst of the garage-sale junkie bunch during our sale. One sweet lady didn't buy anything, but gave us $5.00 for our trip anyways. Another gal, after talking us down $8.00 in price, returned almost immediately and paid the full price when she realized the sale was to fund a mission trip. People are so nice sometimes. Other times however... $20.00 microwaves go missing and Tasmanian devils disguised as middle-aged women tear apart all of your neatly organized clothing piles, buy one shirt and leave the mess all over the garage without a second glance. ::HUFF::

But then, sometimes God shows up and puts things in perspective while teaching you a lesson on provision...

The missing microwave incident had just been discovered and Devin was trying to re-organize the clothing disaster when a lady showed up and began chatting with him about our trip. He found out that she just happens to be an advocate for Compassion International. And of course, a huge part of the reason we are going to Uganda in the first place is to meet our Compassion sponsor children! How's that for God dropping some encouragement in your lap just at the right time? But it gets better (as it often does with God-stories), she gave us a $45.00 donation for our trip just because she was so excited that we get to meet our girls. Wowzer  - what a blessing! And what a cool way for God to provide for the stolen microwave and then some!

All in all, we raised nearly $700 through the sale. Which means that the extra travels costs for our Compassion girls to meet up with us are more than covered, along with the supplies we'll be bringing for the orphanages. God is so faithful.

Thank you so much to all our generous family and friends who donated items for our sale. We appreciated this blessing so much! (And thank you to my dear, sweet husband who did the majority of the work planning and running the garage sale! You are amazing.)