GiftFest ’08 Summary- this includes all the events for the week. It was a wonderful time in seeing where God is working and getting right in the middle of it. It's a little lengthy read, but it was a wonderful thing! What a vision from God!
Our goals:
1. To express God’s love in an unconditional way by giving the citizens of Maury County a “gift” through FREE events.
The attendance at the various events: (extremely accurate estimates from actual counts and other methods such as tickets issued to each attendee)
Pre-concert events - 350
Carnival – over 2000
Giveaway – over 2000 (1200 plus at yard sale; over 500 families received over $10,000 in food; over $500 of baby products)
Montell Jordan concert – 1000
Phil Stacey concert – 1850
Xtreme Sports assemblies – 6 schools; 5500 students/faculty
Xtreme Sports harvest night #1 - 700
Xtreme Sports harvest night #2 – 1600
Fireproof Movie – 870
Total – 15870 People
2. To share the greatest gift ever given to man by the sharing of the Gospel to as many people as possible through a variety of methods.
9820 people heard the Gospel. Of this number, statistics tell us that 78% do not attend church on a regular basis – Conclusion: 7660 people who need the Good News heard it.
3. To see people come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.
As of 9/26, we have recorded 256 professions of faith.
Carnival – 3
Giveaway – 9
Concerts – 44
Xtreme #1 – 58
Xtreme #2 – 142
4. To create unity among the body of Christ and encourage Kingdom-mindedness among the churches.
Over 300 volunteers from 42 churches and 13 denominations/classifications all working together. To date, I have not heard of one significant complaint or problem. We have become close friends to brothers and sisters in Christ that we never knew existed. People of different denominations are continuing to help each other in areas beyond the realm of GiftFest.
5. To follow God’s leading in preparing the specifics of GiftFest and trust Him for the resources to accomplish His will.
Our original budget was $105K but we added the Fireproof movie as an event which increased it to $109K. Although all the expenses are not in, it appears we will come in under budget yet we have collected over $116K in donations. 99.8% of this came from churches, church members, and other religious entities. Less than $300 came from businesses.
It has been a tremendous privilege for me to observe God’s orchestration of this event for the past 18 months. From the very beginning, the hand of God has been clearly seen. He brought together a wonderful group of people for a common purpose. The team leaders were hard-working and servant-minded. Not one pastor was concerned about his “turf” or doing a menial task. God even moved people to our area from out of state to participate in this. Satan attacked from time to time but God gave us victory every time.
As you can see, the giveaway portion was only on part of the entire event. We met many great people that have a heart for God through this process. Some may be interested in “how” we did this. To put together a How To manual that describes a, b, c, etc. might be possible but truly, this came to us from above. To copy this exactly, would be a mistake. God worked in a unique way in our unique setting. It sounds cliché but the key was listening to God through prayer and trusting Him for things beyond our ability to comprehend. This truly was a God thing. We'd be glad to share more about the why's of the venues and ideas behind them. God is amazing.
Once again, there were days that I wasn't sure i'd make it through, we'd been gathering stuff, sorting it and throwing away the yucky stuff, calling and getting food ordered from anyone that would let us order great big quantities, and trying to keep up with my own household duties, schoolwork, my family, and our church. We were able to attend 6 funerals 2 weddings and 2 births in the two weeks preceeding the giveaway. On those days when we were so very tired, there'd be a little lady bring me all the clothes from her recently deceased husband and say I've had a hard time getting rid of these, but I believe in what you are doing. I assured her that it was an honor for me to take them and that someone would greatly benefit from them! Another day when we were slowing down, a large suv pulled up with a dad and five children who excitedly marched in with all their stuff for the other kids that need it worse than they do...then that U-Haul pulled up with stuff in it from three families- it alone was enough to fill a house with furniture. I finally tell you that when I got the first call about coordinating this, I said there is absolutely no way I would ever be in charge of it...then the phone call came to ask me to do it and somehow I heard myself say, "Yes, I'd be glad to take that on!" I hung up the phone and said - ok God, You got me into this, You better begin to take care of it!" You know He never sets us up for failure. He just wants us to let Him take control through us. He answered my prayer for creativity and understanding of the task at hand and by His grace and because He is so faithful it was accomplished!
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