Thursday, November 25, 2010

Grocery Bag Giveaway!

To live in a community in which its individuals live in a wonderful harmony. This is the mission of 2Coats. To truly understand the mission, we must be aware of the definition of the term harmony. The origin of the word comes from late Middle English via Old French from Latin harmonia meaing ‘joining, concord,’ and from Greek, from harmos ‘joint.’ On Saturday November 20th, the community of Grundy Center moved closer to that mission of harmony, as several volunteers from the 2Coats organization teamed up to giveaway more than 90 bags of groceries to different community members throughout Grundy Center and several surrounding towns.

Thanks again to all those who were able to fill bags, hand out bags, pray for the day, etc. We filled the bags to the max. We had bags rip, handles break, and soar muscles today from carrying them to several locations throughout Grundy Center and the surrounding communities. Thanks for making them overflow...

A comment from a bag receiver today, and this was just one of the many...please feel free to send me your stories so that I can put them in our blog...

A few verses I was thinking about today...

Ephesians 2:8-10
John 2:1-10

We have received several notes and thank you's from throughout the community...many have sounded like the following two God stories and a note I received at school on Monday.

May we continue to be vessels through which God can work, open to His will, people of His presence...

A young boy came to the door to let us in and then called out to his mother "Mom, come quick, someone's here to give us food". She was vacuuming so she wasn't able to come to the door as quickly as the child wanted her to respond. We kept hearing him say "quick, Momma, they are giving us food". She cried and said "Thank you, you couldn't have come at a better time in my life".
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We were greeted by the man of the house at another home. He asked us in and the look on his face was shear shock and joy when we handed him the bag of food items. We gave him God's message and Todd reached out his hand for a hand shake. The man looks him in the eye and says "I'm a hugger" and proceeds to open his arms as wide as he could go and pulled Todd into his body. He was so happy with our blessing.
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"Thank you very much for the food delivered on Saturday. Is it very much appreciated. It will help out very much since we are going through a difficult time right now. I know I have to put my strength in God right now to get through this difficult time. You help me through part of this. If there is any help I can do to repay what you have done for us let me know. Thanks again, I really appreciate it."
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"Thank you so much for the bags of food/supplies. I cannot tell you how much the boys and I appreciate your generosity. I am sorry they did not open the door for you! we wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving. You are a blessing to us and will be in our prayers."


May we continue to be vessels through which God can work, open to His will, people of His presence...

Thanks again for being you. Bless you. Be on the lookout for our December outreach. I will send over a note later today...

Fall Festival Praises

I hope this finds you well. I received the following e-mail from a mom whose family attended the event...

I think your Fall Festival was a great success for many reasons, but here are the reasons as pertains to our family. With money being so tight, we really had to look into the budget this year to see if we could even 'waste' the money on pumpkins for the kids. Although it doesn't matter to me if we have pumpkins on our doorstep, it is a big deal to the kids and they were able to get those pumpkins on Saturday. (a small thing I know, but very important to my children.) Secondly, eating out has become a very rare treat for us. To be able to see my boys be so excited about hamburgers, chips and a soda and really appreciate it, that is a blessing all its own. Lastly, I feel we are extremely fortunate to have moved to this town where people like you are so open with their faith and show it in such an incredibly unselfish way. Please let me know how I can help in the future.
Thank you so very much for a wonderful Fall day! YEAH GOD!!!

Fall Festival

"Is there anything leaking from under the truck?" I asked one of our student volunteers. "Yes!" he exclaimed, "and I don't think it's water." We had lost the brakes, but just in the right time, as for the last two hours we had been traveling vigorously around town preparing for the days events.

The student volunteers showed up bright and early for the first ever Fall Festival sponsored by 2Coats. Special thanks to Jacob Spangenburg, Andrew Day and his mom Mary Lee, Haylee Neesen, Dalyn Maxson and Stephanie Wallen for the pre festival preparation. We set up chairs and tables, moved pumpkins, and started cooking food early in the morning. Luckily, we were able to get all of the supplies down to the courthouse parking lot just in time for the brakes on our donated truck to go out. Thank you God for that moment! The only thing left was to go get the food.

Other special thanks go to the following individual and business for their contributions...

Food
  1. Mark Dunnick and family foods for the burgers, brats, buns, bananas, apples, etc.
  2. Kiwanis Club of GC for donating their grill
  3. Kristi Ash for the hotdogs
  4. The many folks who cooked bars and goodies
Corn Sand Pit
  1. Rick and Pam Delagardelle for the bailes of hay
  2. Al and Teri Hook as well as Jake Huff
Pumpkins
  1. Neher Farms, Paul Neher and family
  2. Mary at HyVee in Eldora, she came through with a last minute order for us
  3. I bought the paint over at Hobby Lobby and they gave me a sweet deal.
Face Painting
  1. Kellie McClanahan
Balloon Animals
  1. Anna Love, a High School student from CF, and she made some cool balloon animals
Petting Zoo
  1. Eileen and Darren Flater
Thanks to all of those who helped with set up and clean up, donating vehicles, tables, cooking equipment, servers, monetary donations...Shelly and Denny Westerman, Mary Day and family, Diane Adair, Mark Kuiper, Mike Brost, Carol and Rod Nelson, Joel Browns, Andrew Day, Setphanie Wallen, Dalyn Maxson, Haley Nessen, Danielle Engle, Lance Bertram, Andrew Peters, Elsy Jean Wilson...

I am sure there are so many more...You are doing his work, and for that he will Bless you, more importantly, he sees you and I know His heart is smiling

Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Thanks again for your time...

Mary & Steve H.