Having a Garage Sale

So, Tony and I are having a “no one wants to buy your crap” garage sale. We cleaned out closets and drawers on Wednesday, organized the garage and ta-da, we’re all set to sell our unwantable-closet-clutter to the masses.

So far… no one wants to buy our crap.

Can’t say as I blame them, but we have some nice knick-knack stuff. some Christmas paraphernalia that I am too lazy to put out during the holiday, some candleish stuff, books galore.

We sold a few big items, but here’s where we made the most money.

An older man stopped by and asked if we had any old coin. As a matter, yeah, we do. When I was in my early twenties, someone gave me a bunch of old coins – silver dollars, dimes, old money.

Tony and I go digging around in the house. We just cleaned so you think we’d know where the coinage lived. Nope. But! Never fear, there were only two tubs we didn’t bother and sure enough, one tub had the coins.

As the man went through them, figuring out an offer, he told us his testimony. He was a heathen, he said, a partying Navy man, then a cabinet maker, an alcoholic, in the bars more than with his family.

When he was forty, he fell and hurt his hip. Stuck in bed, watching TV, he ordered Playboy from the toll free number, then went to the bathroom. There he said, God spoke to him

“You don’t need that.”

The man teared up as he told of his God encounter. “It wasn’t an audible voice, but… I HEARD Him.”

A few minutes later, he went out and turned on the TV, finding Richard Roberts preaching. It was one of those divine moments where the TV preacher really was preaching to one man.

Our coin hunter said for fifteen minutes, the televangelist spoke directly to him. He dropped to his knees, gave his life to Jesus, poured out five bottles of liquor, had his wife go all through the house and removed the porn and anything else he felt the Lord urged him to throw out.

Man, it made our day to hear him. God is so amazingly good. The man offered me good money for my coins, and went on his way.

Even better, Tony gave me the coin money for some retail therapy!

Meanwhile, Pal and Lola are quite distressed they cannot help in the garage sale. We could let them in the garage with us, but if they see one leaf fluttering down the road, off they’ll go! And we live on a semi-busy street.

At 9:00, we decided to just give the stuff away. It’s so fun to watch people’s faces when we say, “Take what you want, it’s free!” And seriously, there are some nice things on the tables. I have good taste.

As for the books, we ask people what they like to read, then I find a Christian author to match there taste. I’ve given away Kristin Billerbeck, Colleen Coble and Brandilyn Collins. Now, least you say, “Rachel, you’re giving books away and that’s not helping the author,” I say, “Yes, but I’m turning people onto these readers who would never buy them otherwise.”

It’s PR. Otherwise, yes, please, buy the author’s books. Help a starving artist.

In other news. . .

I’m starting a three book series with a co-author! I had to be a tad clock-n-dagger about it for awhile, but I can begin to leak information now.

This collaboration has a huge testimony on my end and as the days go by, I’ll share it with my cyber friends.

Anyway, I met my co-author last week at her home in Nashville. She’s the name, Big Name, I’m the wanna-be. 🙂 We talked for several hours about books and story, and felt really comfortable with each other.

So, it’s all exciting and very much a God thing. Please, no matter where you are in life, what you’re struggling with, just BELIEVE!! God is good. God is love. God is for you.

Oh, while in Nashville I hung out with my lovely and talented editor, Ami McConnell, my sweet agent, Katie Sulkowski, and went to the Bluebird Cafe with Katie and my good Nelson buddies, Lisa Young, and Katie Schroder.

It’s been lovely to have a few months off writing to regenerate. I had a minor health issue to deal with, but the Lord has taken care of it. I’m really excited about this new series. In fact, last night I was sitting in Friday night prayer, soaking in the Lord’s presence and said to Tony, “I feel like I know these characters already.” Don’t you know, I teared up.