A Ministry from the “Losers”

Every year there are winners and losers of the big championship games/series.  On Friday, Major League Baseball crowned it’s new champion, the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Have you ever noticed that immediately after the championship team wins, there are caps and shirts available declaring them “World Champion”.  How do they do that so quickly?  As some of you already know, these are pre-made shirts and caps.  They are made before the final series/game starts proclaiming that team the champion.

Now, I’m no math major or anything like that but I don’t think I’d have to be a rocket scientist to know that if they have shirts already made for the champion, they also had shirts made for a possible, would be champion who is now the “loser”. In this case, there had to be shirts out there somewhere in that stadium waiting to declare the Texas Rangers World Champions.

So what happens to the losing teams shirts?  Where do they go when they don’t win the championship?  Have you ever wondered that?  Well wonder no longer.  Groups like World Vision takes those items and distribute them all across the world to those who are in need.  It’s an amazing how many people they serve with all these leftover items.  Check out this article.

It quite fascinating to see how useful something of little worth can be to someone somewhere.  What is worthless here is a pot of gold to someone else across the globe.  People don’t care that the Texas Rangers aren’t world champions.  They just care that they have a new shirt to wear to replace the old torn up one they’ve been wearing for days.  It is a blessing and such great foresight by groups like World Vision to use these items to share Christ to someone else.

So where am I going with this?  Two things:

• Become aware of groups like World Vision.  I have worked with them in the past and they are a great organization doing some amazing things around the world.
• What are some else’s throw aways that you can turn into tools to reach people for Christ?  I’ve been there before where it seems like someones leftover sound system always ends up at the youth ministry.  Or someones old ping pong table ends up with the youth. “I don’t want that!  It’s junk”.  I have even wondered why can’t I get something “new”.  Well, instead of thinking that way, I should be grateful for what I have and use what God has given me for His glory, just like World Vision.

So here’s the question(s): Do you get other people’s leftovers as well?  If so, what do you do when you get them?  Do find ways to use them to reach more people for Christ or do they go off into storage somewhere, never to be used?  Now, I will say that no all “leftovers” are great to have and what you need.  It very well may be someone else’s real junk that they want to just donate to the church for a tax deduction.  If that’s the case, find the closest dumpster and discretely place it there 😉

But when the leftovers come, majority of the time, there can be great things that come from it.  For instance, one time someone wanted to give the youth program a pool table.  At first I wasn’t too keen on having a pool table at the youth room because the room was small and cramp.  But I took it (mainly for our Super Bowl Party) and it ended up being one of the most used item in the youth room…more than the Wii or XBox.  So, although I may not have wanted it, we took it and God used it by enabling us to have some great conversations with students around the pool table.

The bottom line and my encouragement to you is, if there is some use to it, take it, use it and see how God uses it for His Glory.  God may have put it on that persons heart to give to you for some bigger reason than we can see right now.  So, although we may not have a “need” for it that moment, maybe storing it away for a bit would be beneficial down the road.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Experiences?  Post a comment and let the discussion begin so that we can all benefit from it.