We Had Coats!

By the time we opened the doors on Saturday morning, we had over 700 coats to give away. Initially, we had all agreed that if we got 150 -200 coats, that would be a great blessing. The response of our church, the churches around us and the community in general was amazing!

Not knowing what to expect, we were excited and pumped. a team of folks had spent the morning on Friday, sorting and hanging the coats, filling up Fellowship Hall and overflowing into "The Cave", our catch-all room right off Fellowship Hall.

We never really got a huge crowd but we did get a steady stream of folks coming in. It was awesome! Fellowship Hall looked like an outlet center with folks shopping among the tables and racks, trying on coats and just hanging out chatting with each other and having a great time.

We handed out over 200 coats! We would have run out if we had gathered our initial projection. The great news is that all the leftover coats will get into grateful and needy hands through the community service organizations we have been in contact with.

The bigger blessing came to us in the hard work and sweet fellowship we had with each other, the folks who came in for the coats and our brothers and sisters from Mision Christian Emanuel, the Hispanic church that meets in our sanctuary on Sunday afternoons. Pastor Martinez and his folks were there throughout the morning lending a hand and helping to translate for some of the folks who stopped by.

This was, in every respect, a huge blessing and a lot of fun. My message this morning was from 1 Cor 15:35-49. It dealt with our unique gifts and our commonality with other members of the body of Christ, our purpose being to band together and become a reflection of His glory, love and mercy to the world around us.

What a beautiful illustration God gave us yesterday of how that works.

Here are some pics:



Here are some of the more strange folks that dropped in:



We learned a lot of lessons this year. we hope to do it again next year but would like to start collecting coats in October and hand them out the first week in December. we'll also consider doing it for two or three days/evenings.

For this year, what we know is this: God blessed, He moved among us and in all that, we were blessed. Many thanks to all the folks that helped and all that werer praying for us!