This past weekend I had the opportunity to help Beks, who is in charge of merchandise at Adventures in Missions, and runs the merch tables at launch. I was excited to have this opportunity to grow in becoming more comfortable in working with money and selling items. I have worked a lot in retail, but I seem to think of myself as not being very good at being relational.
This was seriously such a great time because I was able to see just how relational I really am and that the enemy was trying to place a lie on one of my strengths. For two days, I got to spend all day talking with parents, family members, and racers about what the race was like for me and what all the Lord did through me on the race. I was able to speak life into parents who were having a hard time and just needed someone to talk to. A lot of them just needed someone to acknowledge the hardship in saying goodbye for 9 or 11 months and share with them how it was being back home.
Within helping I also learned that I am really good at paying attention to the little details in making something look presentable. I was able to use my creativity to help set up and present merchandise to draw people in and buy items to show support for their child and what they are about to embark on. We worked some long hours but at the end of the day I felt blessed to have been able to pour out to every single person that I came into contact with. It was a weekend of commissioning a generation out to build the kingdom, along with supporting and speaking life into the family members who are back at home. Who would have thought selling merch would have brought so much to the light for me?
