The Mina Project

**This post is not meant to brag at all, but to share a project that took a large chunk of our lives last October-December and because I'm so proud we were able to help others with a little sweat and hard work!  This is the body of Christ!**

Last October our church, Hope Community Church, gave out money to the congregation totaling $100,000.  We were asked to take the money we received and find a way to multiply it and help someone in the community.  Called The Mina Project, this is based on Luke 19:11-27 and the basic message is we all have time, talent, and treasure and our job is to use it for God's kingdom instead of hoarding it away, hiding it, or spending it on ourselves.  Our Bible study group got together and with the few hundred dollars we were given, we made wood pallet Christmas trees and other decorations out of pallet wood and sold them.

This was fabulous fun for me!  We located free pallet wood and worked to get the nails out of it.

We cut the pieces down and made large and mini Christmas trees.  We painted some slats.

We had a very creative group member turn some of the pallet wood into snowmen.

This was truly a labor (seriously for some people) of love and something I enjoyed doing so much that I didn't want to stop.  Picture me with a jigsaw...yes, it was amazing!  Others were ready for it to be over long before it was!

We set-up shop at the downtown Cary Farmer's Market and sold there for a few weekends.  We also had a local garden supply store agree to let us display and sell our items in their store.  This was great publicity for us as well as promoting to family and friends.

In the end we raised about $3,000 and were able to bless 8 families around Christmas time.  What a thrill to give strangers an unexpected gift around the holidays!