Last weekend we hosted a major event. It was major in a few ways. One, it was a full day extravaganza, 8am-8pm, of bus tours, conversations and explanations about our endeavors, sale of all of our possessions, setting up and tearing down, potluck and concert with The Unfortunate. Then there were the intense emotions leading up to this event and all that came with saying goodbye to stuff. Thank God for our dear friends, for we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without them.
Days before our fundraiser, my friend, Paula came over and helped me get everything out the door, load after load, mourning and rejoicing at the same time. Susan and the Van Fossen’s donated some of their stuff to the event and Tara took care of the detail of making signs for the front yard.
During the event people came and saw the awesome design work by Marc Brummel and got a chance to walk through the bus. We shared our desire to serve and encourage community using our gifts of music and building. With no set pricing for our possessions, we asked people to donate what they felt they had to offer towards our mission. The responses we got varied, a true testament of human character.
We saw greed and we saw charity. And then we saw people who struggled with the donation idea because they though we had some hidden expectation of what we wanted but weren’t telling them and they didn’t want to get the answer wrong. Then there were those who listened and turned around and walked away with a deer in the headlights look. All in all though, we saw charity, great charity. And, with the help of neighbors and friends we were able to raise enough funds to pay for our sheet metal, windows and heating system!
Tillers & Travelers 