I Need A Sign

Can you remember the first time you paid attention to signs while in the car with your parents?  I remember as a young fellow on a road trip, looking at the map and asking for a sign or something that would help me locate where we were on the map.  I loved the challenge of figuring out on a map where we were.  I grew up in a time before GPS, when you used a map to plan your trip and to guide you along the way.

Donations To Local Charity

I would like to share something with you my friends. I am sure that this will not apply to you, as you are very generous and thoughtful folks. I serve at a ministry called With Love From Jesus Ministries. WLFJ does not sell the items, they give them away to needy families. What I am about to share may or may not be the views of those I work with or serve beside at WLFJ, but I need to share this.

I know most of you to be praying people as well. First of all, would you remember WLFJ in your prayers? Would you also ask God to stop people in their tracks who want to bring junk and drop it off as a donation? This is a real picture that I took of a sofa that someone left on our dock after hours. You may not be able to see how terrible of shape this sofa is in. Believe me, it was in terrible shape!

I have learned something about the poor over the years I have served in the ministry:

• They don’t want a worn-out sofa, just like the person who dropped it off did not want it either.
• They like nice things in their homes.
• They have a need for respect and dignity.

I would like to offer you some rules of thumb for future donations:

• Ask yourself why you are getting rid of an item.
• If you are getting rid of an item because you have worn it out, it is not fully functional, faded or broken, then poor people do not want it either…PLEASE do not donate it to WLFJ or any other charity, take it to the curb or the dump.
• When you go to your favorite store to buy kitchen wares, appliances or dishes you are looking for the best your money can buy. Ask yourself; if you were going to a store to furnish your house would you take and use that item you are trying to donate to your local charity?

Donating an item that should be in the local landfill creates needless and extra work on volunteers and slows down the process of blessing the needy families in our communities.

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Donating an item that should be in the local landfill creates needless and extra work on volunteers- Click to Tweet

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Feel free to share this with your friends and family. I hope this is informative to you the reader. Please don’t hear me accusing you. I am simply trying to help you think through what it is that you are donating and to be able to inform others considering donating to a local charity.