A few months ago we hosted training on biblical stewardship, taught by Bob Marette. This story is one of many that came out of this very effective training.
From the book, Millstone to Milestone, Bob Marette says, “This idea is a unique process designed to get anyone out of debt, including mortgage in a short period of time by applying the principles found in the Word of God.” This book is so practical, which makes getting out of debt – no matter how deep – a very real possibility.
One of Bob’s suggestions on how to get the entire process working faster is to have a garage sale. We are a nation/people of collectors; check out your attic, garage, garden shed, closet, kitchen, etc. We all have stuff! These objects take up space and are rarely used. So what do you do? Have a garage sale. Would you like to make a guaranteed one thousand dollars at your garage sale? Sell 2,000 items for 50 cents apiece.
This was the spark that started the fire. Twelve weeks ago, we began going through the house, room by room and pulling out that which we did not need. Then Janet thought, “I need to have cookies and lemonade too. Every good yard sale has cookies and lemonade.” Mark did stop Janet at the idea of selling hot dogs and soda.
Janet was very excited and said, “This feels like Christmas. I can hardly wait!” The monies will go toward our accelerator to help pay down debt (Bob’s idea in his book). Our goal is to have all debt and our mortgage paid off in 7 years…RETIREMENT!
We are amazed at the many opportunities we have had to witness to others since our fun and exciting 50 cent yard sale. Neighbors, friends, family, and co-workers have been so receptive to hearing about our faithfulness in being obedient to God’s Word in our lives. And I can’t begin to tell you how much freedom there is in letting ‘stuff’ go. It’s been so uplifting and exciting to see how much others are being blessed by the material things we truly can do without.
During our sale I (Mark) contacted a co-worker who restores older 60s-70s American cars. I just knew he would like to have my complete set of tune-up kit tools (originals from my earlier years in keeping my own rigs running smoothly). It came with an old metal gray Craftsman tool box, tach-dwell meter, timing light, remote ignition switch, ½ & 5/16 distributor wrenches, plug gapping tool, and a couple cans of carbonator Gum-out, (all nearly mint condition). I could probably have sold the whole set for $75-$100, but I was ready to let them go and I accepted his $20 offer. I watched him happily take each piece out of the box and examine each one. When he took out the last item, we discovered a complete Craftsman miniature tune-up wrench set in the bottom tray; still in its original packaging and unopened. He looked at me with hopeful eyes and asked if I meant to have them be included in the set. It gave me such great joy to simply say, “Of course. Everything in the box is yours.” This is just one of several stories we can share from our two day $0.50 yard sale.
I wish I had a dollar for every time we had this dialogue, “How much do you want for this?” Our response, “50 cents.” Wide-eyed and surprised they would say, “Really? Are you sure?” And we would reply, “Really!” And we would share our story of obedience to God and His faithfulness in meeting our needs. It was so much fun and felt so good getting rid of stuff too.
--Mark and Janet Russell
No comments:
Post a Comment