One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure...Honest!

11/24/10

I am sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting on a flight home…to Florence, South Carolina. I have spent the past week in Santiago, Chile and tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. I have many reasons to be Thanks-Full and so I am…giving Thanks.

I have some time to type out a few thoughts. I break, in between words, to keep an eye on the pulse of this busy airport. Today is one of the busiest travel days, of the year, in the USA and I am having a great time sitting here because I love to watch people.

I sat directly below and in front of the big screens that passengers use to find their flight and gate numbers. I study all their different expressions. Some are happy because they see that their flight and the gate is not in the next county, some curse because it is. Some take off running, screaming, at the rest of the family, that they will make it to the gate and hold the plane…right! Some stare at it for a long time and their lips move while they read all the information about the gates and times of departure…of every flight. Some look worried… many look confused. But for the most part, most seem hopeful. I want to tell you that I am Hope Full and Thanks Full for people that support us…in unusual creative ways.

I am Thanks Full for a group of people that love us in Marietta, Georgia. Because of them and others like them, my family is thanks full and hopes full. This group is one of the reasons that I am able to travel and do what God has called me to do. In a time when many people are complaining about the economic downturn and finances being tight, they found a crazy way to raise some money for my family to continue ministry. I asked my friend Benette to send me some details as to how they did it…here is her answer.

“As to details - it's pretty simple - bring stuff, advertise, have someone willing to host the event (Sandy and Haven) (of course she has her regulars that come to her garage sales), sit around all day Friday and Saturday, pray for amount and wait to see what God will do.”

There you go! It’s just that simple…but you and I know…that it is not…just that simple. For the folks like them, that think outside the box…I am Thanks Full.

The affect that this garage sale has is far reaching, life changing and eternity altering. Most of the stuff they bring to sale may not seem like a treasure to us, but to the people I am able to go and visit and encourage and teach and talk with and eat a meal with and listen to their dreams with and cry with and laugh with…to them…that trash was a treasure. And when I was leaving…I could tell…that a few of them…were also…very very Thanks Full and Hopes Full because we plan to return.

Thanks to all the people that think creatively and outside the box in order to invest in Kingdom work here and now just by making a treasure out of trash.

In the Atlanta airport…gate 31,
Wick Jackson