By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



There is an opportunity coming up for people to clean out the closet, make some money and help spread God’s word.

Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church is hosting its first-ever consignment sale Feb. 12-16.

The Kingdom Kids Consignment Sale is a fund-raiser for short-term mission trips. Kelly Wiegert, director of children’s ministries for the church, is heading up the sale.

Her husband, Paul Wiegert, is the church’s director of outreach.

Gardendale-Mt. Vernon sends out teams of foreign missionaries to four places: Kenya, Mexico, Brazil and Rwanda.

This year, teams ranging in size from two to 20 people will travel to Kenya, Rwanda and Brazil. Most trips are one or two weeks.

A team will travel to Kenya in April to support Life for Children, a ministry that works with orphans.

Paul Wiegert said that last year, the church supported a missionary in Kenya and gave $15,000 to drill a well so a nearby village would have access to fresh water.

This year, he said, a team from the church will return to Kenya to bless the well and lay the groundwork for a revival in 2009 when the church’s senior pastor, Rudy Guess, travels there.

In May, a team will go to Rwanda to spread God’s word.

Gardendale-Mt. Vernon missionaries have planned a trip to Brazil in August to do medical and construction work, as well as evangelism.

Proceeds from the consignment sale will help missionaries on those trips and will also benefit people locally.

In June, the church will host Royal Family Kids Camp in Royal, Ala. The six-day camp is for children who are abused or neglected. There will be 12 boys and 12 girls ages 7-12 at the camp.

“It will be an opportunity to surround them with a family atmosphere,” said Paul Wiegert.

The Wiegerts say there is a simple reason they work so hard to support missions.

“We feel like it’s God’s calling to preach in his church as well as in his church internationally,” said Kelly Wiegert.

Paul Wiegert said that Gardendale-Mt. Vernon is an Acts 1:8 church: “… you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

“We’ve tried to identify what our Jerusalem is,” he said. “It’s people in our own back yard. The ‘ends of the earth’ is our international trips.”

Money earned at the consignment sale will help buy materials like Bibles, construction materials and medical items for mission trips, besides helping pay for the Royal Family Kids Camp.

Also, people who work at the sale will receive part of the funds to help pay for their mission trip. Kelly Wiegert said the trips usually cost missionaries about $500 each.

The consignment sale will be held in the Gardendale-Mt. Vernon gym on Feb. 12-16. Sellers keep 70 percent of the proceeds.

Receiving days are Feb. 11 and 12.

Sale dates are Feb. 12, workers only; Feb. 13, workers and contributors; Feb. 14, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., open to the public; Feb. 15, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., open to the public; Feb. 16, a 50-percent-off sale from 7 a.m. to noon.

Pick-up and pay day is the evening of Feb. 16.

The sale includes children’s clothing, maternity clothing, children’s and youth shoes, and any other items that relate to children such as baby items, bedding, books, CDs, DVDs, children’s furniture, games, high chairs, strollers, toys or other items. No stuffed animals are allowed.

For more information about the sale, call Gardendale-Mt. Vernon at 631-7631; email Kelly Wiegert at kwiegert@gmvumc.org; or visit www.gmvumc.org.