Second Chances Clothing Giveaway

This past Saturday, we hosted our first ever Second Chances Clothing Giveaway. This event took a lot of work over the past few months, but turned out great! We collected clothing from our church (imagine all the clothes you can collect from a church with 2,000 members!) and then sorted, folded/hung it by size in our Christian Life Center. People were invited to come in and to 'shop' for free. While there they also were able to watch a short video about our church as well as speak to representatives from the various ministries that we have. We had 190 families to attend and many of them left with piles of clothing for their spouses, children, parents, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and friends.

We had 75 sweet volunteers from our church and we were overwhelmed with the gratitude expressed by the people who came to our event. At several points in the day many of us were moved to tears by the comments spoken. One little boy exclaimed "Momma!! They have shoes!!!!", while another little girl sat clutching her clothes, and another little girl spun around and around holding her 'fancy dress'. I think I speak for all involved when I say that we were blessed by being  part of this event, and we're already planning next year's!

This was the CLC when we first began setting up.  (A big thanks to Katrina Kerr for letting us use her racks!)

Here's a picture of how it looked once we had finished setting up.

All the volunteers wore yellow VBS shirts from last year. In front of the group is Sharon, the volunteer coordinator for the day. She did a great job lining up all 75 of us!

Look at all those yellow shirts ready to begin greeting our shoppers!

We registered each of the shoppers in our Kid Zone Theatre where they also got information about our church ministries.

One of the shoppers asked several of us to hold her two month old son. We were happy to hold him and she was able to go and shop.

 Regina and her girl scout troop, headed up children's activities while their parents shopped. They kids had a blast!

 Of course we had fun with some of the clothing items we found. Here are Tina and Maggie posing in sweaters they found!

Want to know what I learned in this? God has it all figured out. When a project is too big, too overwhelming, too much- God is free to work. If you feel that God is laying something on your heart, jump in and just start working. He will take care of it.

When I first thought of doing a clothing giveaway we had no idea what it would look like or how we would do it. It turned into a huge event that served many in our community and helped to show the love of Jesus to those around us. I am so grateful that God saw fit to use this idea to do big things for His people. Don't be afraid if you have a vision for something- trust, believe, and jump in!