"The Church has left the building"

A friend on mine linked to her church's blog this week. It was called "The Church has Left the Building" and is all about the different missions projects that the members there have going on. Isn't that a great title?! Isn't that what we're called to do? To get out and be the hands and feet of Christ? 

Our Women's Mission Group is trying to do just that with an upcoming event. We are calling it Second Chances Clothing Giveaway and it is going to be a part of an event that our church is doing on May 14th called "Woodlawn Loves Catawba County". On this day, members from our church will be going out into the community to repair houses, do lawn-care, help single moms with automotive tasks such as changing the oil, and much more. While the church members are doing that, many of us ladies will be hosting our Clothing Giveaway.

It's basically like a yard-sale, except it's completely free and it's only going to include clothing and shoes. People in our community will be invited to come and to 'shop' and get clothing for themselves or their family for free. We also hope to serve breakfast, have a childcare area where the kids can be watched so that parents can shop, and to have an informational fair set up for telling people about all the ministries we have available at our church. There are no strings attached- we simply want to love people with the love of Christ, to meet their needs, and to help get them tied into our church so that we can minister to them in the future.

This is our first year and we have a A LOT of details still not figured out. We are starting to collect clothing this week, so hopefully donations will start coming in. 

Here's where we need help:

1- Pray! Pray that this event will bring in those really need clothing, as well as those that can be reached for Jesus.

2- Send your clothing donations! As you are Spring Cleaning, box up any gently-used items that you may have. If you can't get them to us, maybe we can arrange to come and pick them up from you!

3- If you have any idea where we can get clothing racks to use at this event, please let me know. We need TONS of them. 

4- Donations-We will need hangers, snacks to give away, plastic bags, etc. 

5- We need VOLUNTEERS! We'll need tons of help in the weeks leading up to the event with sorting clothing. We'll need tons of help the week of the event with organizing and setting out the clothes in our Christian Life Center. We'll need tons of help the day of the event with greeting, re-stocking, serving breakfast, set-up and clean-up, parking, security, etc. We can use ALL of you. 

6- Spread the word! Please tell those around you that we can use their clothing! Also, if you have any contacts with groups that would benefit from being notified about this event (Shelters, food pantries, community ministries), please let me know so that we can get the information to you to give them. 

7- Insight and Advice- Like I said, we've never done any type of event like this and let's me be quite honest here- I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm heading up the event. If you've done a similar event (even if it wasn't free) what do I need to know? What may need to be done that I haven't yet thought of?

Love to you all!
Kara