Encounter #1

Last year I shared about attending the Bi-Vo Retreat and six of us got under conviction about the millions lost in Tennessee and we prayed.....and began the GiveHIM Tennessee Ministry.  (Which essentially is a ministry where you step OUTSIDE THE FOUR WALLS of the CHURCH......and minister to the community.)

We had a vendor booth set up with our tee shirts, caps, bracelets, etc. this year and on Saturday morning, Roger shared with the group about our ministry.  We all had our GiveHIM Tennessee shirts on.

Three couples from our church, once again attended the Retreat.  Four of us stayed an extra night and reflected over the sessions and fellowships of the retreat.  All four of us had our shirts on..............two long sleeve tees, one tee shirt and a gray fishing shirt with the logo on it.

PEOPLE NOTICED THE SHIRTS.  Many...just looked and kept walking.

Last year, a lady at the Smokey Mountain Flea Market inspired us to sell tee shirts to support our ministry....although she did had no idea that we would take her advice and use it to meet our needs.  She overheard us talking about witnessing to more people and how we were limited because of funding, etc.

She joined our conversation.  She a previously overheard us talking about the Ladies' selling tee shirts with our church name on it.........to help fund their "Women of Joy" Conference.  During our current conversation she mentioned that we could sell secular tee shirts and use the money to do God's work.  We took her suggestion....ran with it and the rest is history.

We visited back to the flea market and brought her a tee shirt and shared our journey with her.

She wound up almost shouting right in the middle of the flea market.  We joined hands and PRAYED....with everyone walking by and looking.

What an opportunity.  The next few days I will share two more times that on that one day because of our shirts, we were able to share about the lost of Tennessee and our ministry.