The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory Women's Ministries -GrandmaTrunk

Welcome to The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory Women's Ministries Website

Women's Ministries Programs

Service - June 2006

“Grandma’s Trunk”

Helen Leonard

Southern Territory

Decorations

Feature an old trunk on a table or use smaller ones as centerpieces on each table. Allow various antique items to protrude from them such as a rag doll, scarf, old jewelry, a lace doily, teddy bear or an old decorative hat.

Service Idea

Trunk Sale

Atrunk sale involves using the trunk of your automobile to bring items to be sold in order to generate funds for service projects. Encourage everyone to sort through stored, outgrown and almost forgotten treasures. Tell them to bite the bullet and make the ultimate sacrifice for this worthy cause. Ask everyone to bring their items in ahead of the meeting so that they can be sorted and tagged with a selling price. This sale could be held just in your women’s ministries meeting or could be open to the community. See that advertising flyers are posted around the corps, administration buildings and any other Army facility in your town.

An alternate method for selling these items would be to hold a silent action. This is accomplished by putting a suggested or minimum price on the items to be sold. Place a blank sheet of paper by these items. Individuals indicate how much they are willing to pay for them. Others can raise the price, out bidding the first figure, until the end of a predetermined time.

Program Ideas

Whatziz

Ask the women to bring a “whatziz” from home. This could be an antique object or some new–fangled gadget—something that the group will not be able to easily identify. The women must name the item and tell how it is used. Give a prize to the person who

correctly identifies the most items and their use.

Antiques Road Show

If one of the women is knowledgeable about antiques, have her show some of her acquisitions and tell about them. Often the ARC will have someone on their staff who is knowledgeable concerning antiques. Invite that person to explain how to tell the difference between an antique and an inexpensive reproduction, where to look for hallmarks and what they mean, or the difference between art deco and art nouveau.

Theme:

"Memories"

Devotions

Untold Treasures

An old fable tells of the dilemma of a king who had no children and therefore no heir to his throne. To deal with this problem the king sent out messengers to post signs throughout his kingdom, announcing that every qualified young person should apply for an interview with the king to become his successor. The applicants had to possess two qualifications —they must love God and their fellow human beings.

In a small village, a young man saw the signs and believed that he met the qualifications. However, he was so poor that he had no presentable clothes for visiting a king. Nor did he have the money to buy the provisions he would need for the journey. He worked, begged and borrowed until he had enough money.

He had almost completed his journey, when he came upon a beggar by the side of the road. The man sat there trembling, clad only in rags. He pleaded for help. In a weak voice, he whispered, “I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I’m weak, I’m cold. Would you please help me?” The young man was so

moved with compassion by the need of the beggar that he immediately stripped off his new clothes and gave them to him. Without a second thought, he gave the beggar all of his provisions. Then the young man proceeded somewhat uncertainly to the castle, wearing the rags of the beggar and without any provisions. He said to himself, “This is probably

a waste of time. Dressed in these rags, they won’t pay any attention to me. They may not even let me in the castle.”

Upon his arrival at the gate, an attendant welcomed him warmly and showed him in. After a short wait, he was admitted to the throne room of the king. Humbly, he bowed before the sovereign. When he looked up into the face of the ruler, he could not believe his eyes. “Oh, my king,” he

said, “You were the beggar by the side of the road!” “Yes,” replied the king, “I was the beggar.” The young man asked, “Why did you deceive me?” The king replied, “Because I had to find out if you really do love God and your fellow human beings. I knew that if I came to you as king you would have tried to impress me. You would have done anything I

asked because of my kingly appearance and power. I would never have known what is really in your heart. So I came to you as a beggar and I have found out that you do love God and your fellow human beings. You will be my successor. You will inherit my kingdom!”

Does this story sound familiar? Read Matthew 25:34–40. In this Scripture Jesus tells about the final judgment when His obedient followers will be separated from the rest of the world. The real evidence of who we are is the way we act. How we treat others demonstrates what we really think about Jesus. He told us to feed the hungry, give the homeless a place to stay, provide clothing for those without, look after the sick and visit those in prison. When we do all of these things, it’s as though we do them for Jesus and our reward will be to inherit His kingdom. What do your actions say about you?