Buried in a Mountain of Clothes!
(This post was written by Julie, who leads our FP Clothing Ministry)
Buried in a mountain of clothes:
As I sat in my closet and looked at the mountain of clothes, I was astounded. Surely someone could put them to good use. I was giving my closet a good spring cleaning and had enough stuff piled up to fill about ten garbage bags. Suddenly, it hit me! I realized that I’m probably not the only one who’s been in the same dilemma. Through several interesting twists, I ended up speaking with several local ministries that collect clothing to help homeless and low income people in our community.
Since Faith Promise is a big place, I figured I could collect a bunch of stuff all the time. Several more steps later, and we had a donation box set up at church and local ministry partners. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few years.
Now I know what you’re thinking… Faith Promise has a clothing ministry?? Well, sort of. We get to be the support structures for some fabulous places that are already doing fantastic work in our community. We collect it, sort it, and give it away! It takes an enormous amount of inventory to meet the needs of each unique individual that walks through their doors. AND, each of the ministries we work for is already strategically placed in the downtown area, gives the clothes away free of charge, and is able to use them not only to meet physical needs, but spiritual ones as well. We truly get to be the suppliers of a lot of hope in our community, even if we are behind the scenes. By the way, we currently partner with Lost Sheep, Angelic Ministries, and Water Angels.
But why clothes?? Well, I firmly believe that if you want to share the gospel with someone and they have obvious physical needs staring you in face that you don’t address, those people aren’t going to listen to a single word coming out of your mouth. The most important need in their life may be Christ, but if their teeth are chattering so loud they can’t hear you, you are in trouble. Christ called us to go and tell and also meet the needs of those in poverty. I have gotten so much more than I dreamed because of this “behind the scenes” outreach. I also love introducing people to these wonderful places to serve right in our own backyard. Because it’s not about fp, it’s about Christ and what he called us to do.
And here’s another reason you may not have heard about us….it’s just me and two others lugging your stuff around town, and there’s just not enough of us to go around. We have been so blessed with donations. We have gone from averaging 1-2 bags a month to almost 10 bags per week!!! Fantastic!
If you are interested in working with clothing donations on the Pellississppi Campus contact [email protected]. If not, I would love your prayer as we continue to reach out to those in need in our community. Thank you so much!!
