Friendship: A Servant's Heart

This past weekend we enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of festival life as we took our woodworking products for the first time to the Fall Fest at Candler Park located in Atlanta, GA.  The weather was gorgeous, which is typical for this time of year in North Georgia; our sales were good and we received a lot of positive feedback about  our work.  Combining this with several folks inquiring about our online store in preparation for the upcoming Christmas holidays led us to deem the weekend a success ,and the festival one we would gladly return to.

 

For those who have attended festival’s, it all looks pretty routine as you encounter one canopy tent after another stocked full of various specialty items that vendors are trying to sell.  As with anything like this, there is much more than meets the eye when it comes to how each booth gets set up and ready.

For us, setup is the most challenging time of all, especially at events we haven’t done before.  There’s a boatload of uncertainties ranging from parking to how our space fits into the event to what the weather will be like, but the logistics of getting our supplies unloaded (tent, tables, display racks, products, etc) and set up is the daunting. (Wood is Heavy!)

Enter our dear friends Paul and Missy.  This is a couple we met about 2 years ago at our church, and they have been active supporters of our business every step of the way.  For this festival, not only did they plan to attend to show their support, they offered to help us unload and set up our booth hours before the event began!  This was their idea mind you, and to them it was not a big deal, however to us it was enormous!

It takes 2 vehicles for us to bring all our supplies and products, and the basic rules of setup when you have numerous vendors, is to get your vehicle  unloaded quickly, get out of the way for others to access their space, then set up your booth.

Having  extra sets of hands was invaluable.

 We were able to unload our first vehicle quickly as it contained the larger items such as tent and tables.  As I removed and parked the first vehicle,,the team began unloading the other vehicle. By the time I returned to our location we were ready to set up our tent/canopy; and again having four people doing this made it as simple as it could be.  

Paul and Missy are the type of helpers you dream of because they epitomize true servants. They trust our experience in setup and understand this is not the time to reinvent the wheel.  Instead they offer to do whatever is necessary, large or small, all the way to parking our other vehicle. (keep in mind that, as was the case for this event, vendors often must park some distance from their site)  What normally takes us a couple hours was accomplished in less than one; and since we were on a time schedule every minute mattered.

Our well stocked booth display turned out great and we owe so much to our friends; but they weren’t done.  In another selfless display of friendship they stuck around after the festival opened to walk down to the food vendors and pick up lunch for us. (Vendors can't leave their booths unmanned) You just don’t find friends like this often; we know that God uses them in our lives to example the servanthood that Jesus modeled; and they do this in countless ways.

They encourage our hearts with practical help and kindness....  and how grateful we are.

 

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”Galatians 6:2

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."