Linda Newton: Home

THE BEST FUNDRAISER EVER

In these challenging economic times, we need each other more than ever. We need the safe, connected environment that a healthy church provides. But retreats and conferences are harder and harder to plan when more and more folks are struggling financially. So I wrote this article for retreat planners or lay people who believe ladies need to gather together and would like a way to make that happen.

My husband and I have been in ministry for nearly 30 years. I started when I was 2. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!) In all of those years, I’ve never heard of an easier more effective idea for raising money for your ministry than this one.

I have to give credit to Sierra Pines current women’s ministry leader, Janine Hendricks. This sharp lady came into our church with a heart for service and a head full of great ideas. For years our best moneymaking idea was having a church yard sale. We had everyone bring all the stuff they didn’t want from home and a few dedicated souls would sort, price, place, and sell everyone’s leftover junk! I didn’t even talk about the hassle of getting rid of the things that didn’t sell. We would work our fingers to the bone all weekend at a church-wide yard sale and barely clear a couple grand.

Janine’s idea was to have folks bring in the nicer things, brand new but unwanted gifts, barely used items, or even thrift store finds in great shape. With the help of the women’s team, she would lay all the items out on long tables and then she taught us how to “package them.” We collected things together with a theme or a color in common. Then she showed us how to place them in cute baskets purchased a local thrift stores for pennies, wrap them in cellophane, and give them a catchy title.

For example, Janine took a novel and devotional that someone donated, found a lap blanket, a cute pair of reading glasses, a journal, and pen, placed them in a basket and called it, ME TIME. Another creative example was a basket labeled, Just the Two of Us, that featured a romantic comedy, microwave popcorn, candy and candles. The possibilities are endless.

Then at our scheduled women’s events, we displayed these baskets with a small brown bag sitting next to them. When ladies enter the room, they are given an opportunity to purchase tandem tickets for $1 each, 6 tickets for $5, and 30 tickets for $20. Or more if they like ☺ They keep one and write their name on the matching one and place it in the bag next to the basket they want to win. At the end of the event, a ticket is drawn out of the bag and a winner is born!

A delightful addition to this great way of raising funds is the fun-factor it adds for your ladies. After several years of doing this, “basket time” has become as much a part of our events as our teaching time! Even if a gal doesn’t win a basket, she still finds herself cheering for her friends who do. Now we even have ladies bidding on baskets for each other!

Depending on the donations you collect, you can raise as much in several hours of combining and wrapping baskets as you would in several days of working to sell stuff at bake or yard sales. We have put together so many baskets now, that our women’s team is trained to look out for items that would work well together in a basket at yard sales or thrift stores increasing the basket supply.

No more standing for hours to cook for a pancake breakfast or washing cars in a parking lot until my fingers turned pruney! I’m sold. Thanks, Janine for a great idea. I may not be the only women’s leader it blesses.

If you would like a copy of my article How to Plan a Successful One-Day Conference, please email me a
lindanewtonspeaks@gmail.com

THE DAILY DIALOGUE
Sanity for me is an every-minute enterprise! I maintain it only if I stay on-line with the Lord all day long. I have to be intentional about keeping the communication lines open. If I’m not careful I find myself rattling off my morning prayers like items a child’s Christmas list. Then I say “amen,” hang up the hot line to God, or shut off the cosmic computer, and run out to tackle the day.  Then my day looks like this lady’s.
      Hester Sue wakes up excited about the new day, and she starts out with great intentions. She jumps into the shower and sends up a prayer for everyone—her kids, husband, her boss, his boss, her parents, the pastor, and even the neighbors to the north who are never very friendly. Then she towels off, says amen, and sails into the day feeling pretty prayed up. Half way to work her cell phone rings.  It’s her oldest, Susie, “Mom, Tommy missed the bus again.”  
    “Put him on.” Hester Sue feels her temperature rise as she grips the steering wheel.  “You are so busted, Mister. No phone, no T.V. and no video games.  I can’t believe you did this again. Is it so hard to get yourself ready in the morning?  For crying out loud, you’re almost ten.  How hard can this be?  You haven’t heard the last of this.  We will finish this later, Young Man!” Then she hangs up the phone just as she hears her dejected son whimper on the other end of the line.
     Hester Sue barely gains her composure as she pulls into the parking lot at work.  Just as she exits the car, the door handle comes off in her hand. “Oh that’s just great,” she mumbles to herself.  “How many times have I had this into the repair shop?  Those guys are such a bunch of rip-offs!”  So she shoves the handle into her purse, sucks back her mounting anger, and marches into work.  As she enters the outer office her mood worsens as she spots the secretary’s desk empty—again.  “How many days off do they give this woman?  Fabulous, another day of her work and my work too.”  The sarcasm doesn’t make things better but, by now, she’s beyond the point of caring.
     She rounds the corner to her cubicle and notices a note penned in black ink taped to the entrance.   It’s from her boss castigating her for not turning out the lights when she left work yesterday.  “ Oh, my gosh! I did forget.  I can’t deny it.  I rushed out of here to get Susie to the orthodontist and I forgot to flip the switch. Now I’ve managed to tick off the administration. Well, I can kiss that raise goodbye.”   Now feeling angry, guilty, and utterly frustrated, she rushes to restroom to meltdown and runs into Jenny who works in the cubicle next to her.  Jenny opens her mouth stepping on Hester’s reserve nerve, and Hester rips her head off!  And Jenny’s the gal she’s been trying to get to church!
       Let’s rewind Hester Sue’s miserable day and try it with the “Daily Dialogue”. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6-8,  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Hester thoroughly and earnestly laid her petitions before the Lord.  But the day proved to have more anxiety that she could handle and she found herself in desperate need of some peace.  1 Thessalonians 5:17 advises us to, “pray continually.” So today Hester Sue stays connected with the Lord all day long.  She jumps into the shower prays for everyone and the cat, but this time she doesn’t say amen.  She doesn’t hang up the phone or click off the computer.  She stays on line with the Lord.
       She launches into her day and half way to work she gets a call from her daughter informing her that once again Tommy has failed to catch the bus and Hester Sue prays, “Dear Lord, please don’t let me kill my son!” She takes a deep breath and pulls into the parking lot at work. As she’s opening the door the handle comes off in her hand and she immediately accesses the Lord’s help not to say awful things about the repairman who continues to insist, “It’s fixed. You must be letting your kids swing on it.”  
     Hester Sue heads through the door at work and notices a vacancy in the front office.  This time she immediately prays for the sick secretary instead of deriding her. She’s starting to feel some of that peace that Paul talks about in Philippians as she trades her anxiety for answers. She knows how to respond in life’s situations because she’s tuned in to God’s frequency and He’s supplying all that she needs “according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19.
     Rounding the corner, she spots the note from her boss but constant communion with the Lord has been filling her tank all morning, so she isn’t derailed by her manager’s hate mail. Instead she takes ownership of her part and purposes to do better in the future. When Jenny approaches, Hester is prayed up and presentable, and she doesn’t wreck her Christian witness in the workplace!
     I believe that the Daily Dialogue, that continued communication with the Lord, determines the difference between despondence and abundance.  But you don’t have to trust me.  Try it for yourself.  I’m fond of saying, “Then watch how God shows up.”  But the reality is that God is always there we just aren’t tuned in enough to notice. There are days He spends a lot of time tugging on your sleeve to get your attention and, if you’re like me, your too busy to focus as you barrel through life going ninety miles an hour on a dead-end street.  But I challenge you to slow down long enough to look for His involvement in your daily routine—the parking space that came available right in front of the store when only had fifteen minutes to run in, the money that showed up unexpectedly at the moment of your greatest need, the peace you feel as you float through a demanding day. He’s anxious to show Himself to you. Keep your heart focused, your ears open, and your eyes peeled.

Adapted from 12 Ways to Turn Your Pain Into Praise. Click on Buy to purchase.            

SUMMER BUTTERFLIES~
This summer when you see butterflies floating through the air displaying their exquisite beauty note this awesome lesson we get from Romans 12:1-2,"Therefore, I urge you, brothers (and sisters), in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
      The word for transformed here doesn’t just mean change like, “I’ve changed from Colgate to Crest or I’ve switched to Geico!”. The word for change here is the word metamorphoo from which we get our English word metamorphosis used to describe the life cycle that transforms and unsightly caterpillar into a magnificent butterfly.
     Have you ever looked at a caterpillar? Sticking out of its head are long hairs that look like horns. It has strong jaws with other mouth parts on the underside of its head. It has antenna on either side of its mouth to help feel its way as it crawls along on its many undulating legs. A short structure called a spinneret sticks out below the mouth.  The caterpillar squeezes a thin stream of liquid through the spinneret that hardens to create a foothold wherever the creature goes. On each side of its head just above its mouth are six small eyes that form a curved line.
     I must admit, sometimes I feel like that caterpillar as I wander through life bug-eyed, buck-toothed, and drooling! Thank goodness God is in the transformation business! With His amazing power, He turns that unsightly caterpillar into a magnificent winged beauty—the beautiful butterfly that poets call Winged Flowers or Flying Gems. That’s what he does for us when we allow Him to transform our weak will, our shallow commitment, our fragile faith through the process of prayer and meditating on His Word.
I have had the blessing of watching the metamorphosis personally when I was teaching fourth graders. Every elementary school teacher gets this experience when some child brings a caterpillar into the classroom, and we all get to watch it spin a chrysalis around itself. Then after the proper time, it has to shed that cocoon it has woven so tightly around itself.  As the butterfly is struggling to emerge, it strains and pushes trying to break free.  Inevitably one of the students anxiously suggests that we make things easier on the poor creature.  “She’s struggling. We need to help her,” suggests a sensitive girl in ringlets and ruffles.
      But as the creature fights it’s way out of the sticky shell it’s legs and wings are strengthened for flight. If we intervened and “helped” the creature, we would cripple it for the very purpose for which it was created.
There are times when we rail at God because we don’t see him intervening in our struggles in the way we think He should. When all the while he knows that the faith we are growing is building strength in us to be the beautiful, strong creatures He intends us to be.
Now I recite Romans 12:1-2 every time I see a caterpillar creeping along, and my goal is to trust God more as I witness His power evidenced in every butterfly floating by.