Thrifts and Gifts Results
Thrifts & Gifts Celebration Report
Central Baptist Youth and Children’s Committee
By Laura Levens, chair
August 15, 2026
One never knows what long-forgotten childhood item or memory will suddenly pop into one’s head for a moment. Does this happen to you? ---maybe a certain smell, a place, or someone else’s story will unleash one, two, or a whole stash of memories you hadn’t thought about for ages.
Soon after Charles asked me last fall to serve as chair of the Youth and Children’s Committee, a lot of memories from my days in Children’s Bible Drill started resurfacing. I was not sure why—I didn’t think Charles was going to quiz me or anyone on memory verses or how fast I could find the Book of Proverbs. That’s not his style.
The longest verse I was ever challenged to memorize as a child was from the very last book in the Old Testament. Malachi 3:10 begins,
“Bring ye tithes to the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, [and see] if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Please have patience, my childhood memorization was in the King James and I still think this verse is catchier in KJV Shakespeare-era verse than some current English translations. (“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house” is how the NIV reads.)
As a child, I focused more on memorization and pronunciation of all 52 words correctly. As an adult, I have been called to pay attention to what God promises to do when people give what they can for the church community.
When the Youth and Children’s Committee agreed to raise funds for the youth and children’s department by collecting and selling household items and clothing donations, Malachi 3:10 echoed in my brain again. Our committee began our idea to raise funds for the youth and children’s department by collecting household items and clothing donations in mid-February 2026.
The positive response and early donations from the congregation encouraged us to hold a rummage sale for the Lexington public. Over the course of 10 weeks, people donated goods and clothing for the rummage sale. Two large church rooms were stuffed full and a third room held large furniture. Visiting rooms that continue to fill with donated goods felt like people were, to borrow Malachi’s words, bringing their tithes to fill the storehouse. By mid-April, our church was full of goods and the potential to do good.
The Thrifts & Gifts Rummage Sale on April 25 was a resounding success. The week of our sale, over 50 volunteers of all ages helped organize, prepare, and run the sale. We raised over $3000 from selling donated items and food concessions in one day. And we had an abundance of donations left over that were still in very good condition for consignment and local online sales.
We took some items to different resale stores around Lexington and I posted other things on Facebook Marketplace. Our current fundraising total from the April rummage sale and summer consignment is $5733. We have been blessed beyond measure by your abundant giving for the children and youth department.
By mid-July, we still had one storeroom of goods and clothing that remained unsold. As a committee, we wanted to donate items we couldn’t sell. This was our plan from the beginning so that the church’s generous donation of goods could be shared with other ministries and non-profits. Giving our remaining goods away was also made possible with the help of volunteers to organize and pack up our goods.
In partnership with the church’s Clothes Closet ministry, we sent clothes to CBF Field Personnel Scarlette Jasper’s Olive Branch Ministries in April. We held a free market in our church for Kentucky Refugee Ministry families in July. We also donated items to Paws 4 the Cause Animal Rescue after they reached out to purchase some items online.
The last week of July, I took our remaining items--one very large SUV carload--down to First Baptist Church, Corbin. The money raised will help fund FBC’s White Flag ministry to the homeless and their local non-profit partner, the Independence House. The Independence House is an alcohol and drug treatment center for women who are pregnant and/or parenting children.
Many Bible readers interpret the opening lines of Malachi 3:10--“Bring your tithes…that there may be food in my house”—in connection with faithful tithing and stewardship of gifts to the church. Regarding faithful stewardship, we have no way to calculate how much we earned versus the potential money we gave up by giving things away instead of holding on to them.
We sought to be good stewards of the church’s generosity and to be generous toward others who were doing good elsewhere too. We held these items donated to the church with respect and in trust for the sake of our youth and children, and we hold the money raised with the same respect.
The majority of Malachi 3:10 (38 of 52 words as my inner child would point out) describes God’s promise of blessings. God boasts: “see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (NIV). Malachi directs our attention to who God is. God is not stingy; God is bountiful. God shares. God’s love overflows.
Upon reflection, the bounty of donations, the willingness of volunteers, the people coming to spend money on reusable items, and the ministry partners ready to receive our overflow—all of this in real time has felt like God’s provision of abundant blessings in a mighty, steady rainfall from February to now.
It does not matter how great or small any donation seemed at the time; God has made our collective donations overflow. The Youth and Children’s department incredibly honored and grateful for every gift. Each one was valuable.
When read from a missional perspective, God’s promises in Malachi are connected to Jesus’ sermons and miracle stories in the Gospels. Jesus calls for attention to little children, to people without clothes, to the imprisoned, and to the sick. Jesus also promises abundance, transformation, freedom, and more.
Through the donation of items and stewardship of what had been given, it has been a blessing to serve others in the way Jesus asks us to. When we pulled out every household and clothing item we had left for the KRM Free Market, I remarked to Charles and Dara that I felt like one of the disciples carrying around one of 12 full baskets of leftover food after Jesus feeds an enormous multitude by the sea. The youth and children’s department had been provided for, and there was still so much more to share with others.
In the middle of Malachi 3:10, God even challenges us—test me! Stick around and make me prove it! When I was young, I pestered all the adults around me about this part. Was this a logic problem? Did God fail the test? Are we still waiting for this? Adults would smile and tell me, “it’s not that simple;” that I would understand when I grew older. Now that I am grown, I may understand a little more. God has not forgotten God’s boasting promises of life abundant and showers of blessings.
In Thrifts and Gifts, I have experienced God uphold this promise of blessings through the work of our church and in much larger ways than we can imagine. Maybe you have too. My experience leads me to be still in the presence of the Almighty, Beyond Understanding, Spirit of God. It is a very humbling thing to witness the lavishness of God.
God’s love has passed us by and provided us with plenty out of clothing and household goods we decided to give up and do without. The youth and children, our future generations, are also part of God’s blessings. I pray that we spend the funds we have been given for the youth and children with the same spirit of generosity. I pray that we have more opportunities to be good stewards of the largesse of God in the future.