Baskets Of Hope

What an amazing weekend!!! I am still trying to recover this morning from the whirlwind of the last few days. I may have to turn to coffee...no, it will NEVER be that bad! :)

We decided this year that the best advertisement that we could do for Easter, would be to do something completely for our community. We didn't want it to turn into a big publicity stunt for Seacoast. Honestly, we have had enough publicity lately! :) We decided to partner with a local organization, The Human Relations Commission of Greenville County, that helps families in our area who are homeless or about to be homeless. They collect basic needs items for the families to help them get back on their feet.

I first challenged the church to donate basic items for baskets to go to the families. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our people! You guys came through in a BIG way! They are busy at the office this morning putting the baskets together to deliver later today.

We then did some art outreach in downtown Greenville the last couple of weekends. Mitch Lehde set up at a store front in the middle of Main St. to paint 3 paintings to be sold at our event on Saturday. While he was painting, we handed out water bottles and fliers about the event to anyone who was interested. I love that fact that Mitch is able to use his amazing artistic gifts for true ministry! People have called our church artsy - I LOVE IT!!!

This all led up to the huge Baskets Of Hope event this past Saturday. We crammed everything we could possibly think of into 3 hours of fun in front of the church. Here is a list of what we did:

• Blood Drive (Around 30 people gave during the event!)
• Silent Auctions
• 2 Live Auctions (Scott and Deborah rock!)
• Cakewalk
• Sucker pull for the kids
• Face Painting
• A live concert (thanks Lee!)
• Easter Egg hunt
• Car Wash
• Food
• Mitch did a live painting for a raffle
• Jump castles
  
• Craft table

And...we're officially exhausted! The best part - we raised over $3000 at event!!! Every penny of that will go to the families that we are helping.

I am so proud of our church right now! This is what being a Christ follower is about. If we do not love our community like Jesus, than why should we exist?

(I will post some pictures tomorrow.)