Catching up before I get behind again

OK, I know I've been remiss yet again in updating my blog, but I have had quite a full plate the past couple of weeks. Last summer, God placed a large task on my heart, and I decided to step out in faith and do my best to answer his call. The children's ministries at our church is fabulous, but despite a large, mostly well-to-do congregation, we struggle funding our larger programs like VBC. At the end of this summer's Bible camp, the idea of hosting a holiday bazaar as a fundraiser for VBC came to me, and soon after that I started to put the wheels in motion.

Our church in Columbia hosted a similar event every year, so I called a friend who used to chair the bazaar to get ideas from her. She encouraged me to put this event on, and with the help of our children's team at church, the idea of a bazaar became a reality. I know that this was God's idea, and I was merely his hands and feet. I could never have pulled this off on my own!

The bazaar was last Saturday, and it was a huge success. Most of the vendors assumed we had been holding a bazaar for several years because most everything ran so smoothly. We had 55 vendors, and over 250 people came to shop. Each vendor donated an item for our raffle booth, and the ticket sales totaled over $350. We also had a frozen foods booth; church members made meals and froze them, and we sold them. We sold every last item that was donated and earned $750! In total, we made about $6000 for the children's programs at church.

I am so blown away by this whole experience. While I had many people helping me, there were two people in particular who helped make the bazaar such a success, and I couldn't have done it without Amy who was in charge of advertising and Laurie who organized the frozen foods booth. They are awesome and really put their spiritual gifts to work in a big way. I was never really nervous about how it would turn out; I knew it would be a success, but I didn't know it would be this big of a success. I really think that God was glorified through this event, and I know we'll put the money we earned to good use.

Bella Cosa Texas (I bought myself a little treat from her!)

One of our many fabulous jewelry vendors

The Uppercase Living booth

Some of my happy helpers!