Be Blessed Ministries

September 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I found out about Be Blessed Ministries on the Long Hollow Baptist Church website.  Micki Johns and Melanie Reininger run this ministry from their homes and their facility space is in Madison, TN.  They accept donations of clothes, shoes, purses, coats, furniture, kitchen items-non food only, bedding, appliances, towels and wash cloths. Families in need receive assistance with items on hand.  If the family needs anything they do not currently have in inventory, they send word out through their network and find a way to meet the needs.

Be Blessed has been in the business of helping those around them for three years.  This ministry is truly a testament of the body of Christ working together to meet the needs of those in troubled situations.  They have chosen to remain an independent charitable organization and not file for a 501(c)3 in order to preserve their freedom to serve in the manner they sit fit without regard to federal limitations.

Their main focus is working with agencies or churches to help those in need. These agencies help Micki and Melanie know who truly is in need and not trying to work the system by taking advantage of people in position to help. The church and agency partnerships help in ways Be Blessed cannot with regards to expertise and money.  Each family is directed to their church or local non profit agency for assistance and Be Blessed comes along side and supplements what the local agency has done.

Everything is funded by Micki and Melanie and the items that are donated to their ministry.  Part of the vision of Be Blessed is for people to see you don’t have to have a lot of money or resources to help someone else.  –LOVE that they have the same mentality as I do with regards to my couponing on a small scale to help in mighty ways!–  They capitalize on being resourceful and crafty when it comes to meeting the needs of the families they help.

One of the ways the ministry has begun to be creatively resourceful is by using coupons to purchase cleaning items, hygiene items and other miscellaneous things that can be purchased for next to nothing, most times-FREE, by using coupons stacked with sales ads at local stores.  If you have any unused coupons or items you have stockpiled from coupon shopping, these donations are gladly accepted as well.

Any items that a family normally needs on a daily basis are appreciated.  Food items must be taken to a local food pantry or given directly to a family who needs them.

Continual needs include:  clothing, furniture, bath towels and wash cloths, cleaning supplies, hygiene items, appliances, and kitchenware.  Follow them on Facebook or their blog to be updated with urgent, immediate ministry needs.

If you are interested in donating, volunteering or know of a family in crisis, contact Be Blessed today to get help mobilized.

Are there any organizations like this in your area

where you donate or volunteer your time and resources?

Filed Under: Donations, Faith, Featured, Giving Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Virtual Pampered Chef Show & Giveaway

September 2, 2011 By 1 Comment

I am hosting a virtual Pampered Chef show from now until September 18th, 2011.  Every person that orders will have their name entered into a drawing for a taupe mini baker!  So hurry now and enter and share with your friends, too.

There will be items earned through this virtual show will be donated to a deserving single mom at my church‘s “The Gift” single mom event the first of December.  I understand financial times are hard for a lot of people right now.  You can still help by passing this link along to your friends and family to help get them involved in blessing someone else this Christmas season.

Thank you for your support!  Pass it along….

Filed Under: Donations, Giveaways, Giving Tagged With: , , ,

Hello World!

September 2, 2011 By 22 Comments

As you can see, the new blog is up and running.  If there are things missing or just not quite right, please send me a heads up and let me know what’s causing you problems :)   As you are taking a look around and getting a feel for our new space, pass along my new Facebook fan page to your friends and let them know we’re here.  As a thank you for ‘liking’ me and passing the word about us along, I am giving away $10 in an Amazon eGift Card to one lucky winner on September 16, 2011 at 9:00 a.m.  Here are the ways you can enter:

1.  “Like” my Facebook fan page-1 entry

2.  Share my Facebook fan page to your friends with an in post tag that will show up in my news feed.  If you don’t know how to do this, it’s simple.  You have to personally like my page first.  Then, when you are typing your Facebook post to share with your friends use the @ symbol directly in front of my blog name, like this:  @An Apple … blah, blah, blah :)   If you have liked me first, when you put the @ symbol and the first ‘A’, a drop down list of your friends or pages you already like will come up.  Pick out An Apple a Day Wisdom from the list and click on it.  Then you have tagged me in a Facebook status post.  This will count as 1 entry.  You can do this as many times a day as you want from now until September 16, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. and each time will count as 1 entry.

Thank you for your patience as we went through this improvement process.  May we all continue to grow together here.  And good luck on winning the Amazon eGift Card!!!

Ready…….Set……….

ENTER!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Giving Tagged With: , ,

Additions to “The Gift” Donation

August 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

For those of you who have been long time readers, you know about the donations we give through our abundantly blessed coupon shopping experiences.  My church puts on an annual event called “The Gift” for single moms the first of every December.  This year, with the help of some amazing friends, I am donating at least one of everything I am able to purchase/collect along with other donations as a present for a lucky lady’s family!  So far we are up to four paper case boxes including what is in the picture above!!!

Here is everything in the box that was added today:

1 family size box of Cheerios
1 box of Pillsbury brownie mix
1 box of Pillsbury cake mix
1 Yardley all natural facial bar
1 box of Tylenol Precise heat patches
1 jar of Classico pasta sauce
2 bottles of salad dressing
1 bottle of Dawn dish liquid
1 bottle of French’s mustard
1 bottle of Dial body wash
2 Dove deodorants
2 boxes of Colgate toothpaste
2 boxes of freezer storage bags
1 Chips Ahoy package
3 packs of Orville Redenbacher popcorn
2 Softsoap hand soaps
1 Skintimate shave gel
1 Hunt’s ketchup
1 Wisk laundry detergent

I have also collected a box of 17 body washes, 5 salad dressings, 5 cans of Texas Pete Chili Sauce, 3 Musketeers Candy Bars, 6 Colgate/Crest toothpaste tubes, 15 travel size Band Aid packs, 1 Johnson & Johnson Baby Wash.  This box is going to be donated to my new friends at Be Blessed Ministries. I am meeting Melanie there this morning to give this box plus some stuff I am getting on the way!  I have to stop at Kroger and get some more Ivory body wash, the Energizer flashlights on sale at Kroger this week, and whatever else I can find along the way :)

If you are in the Hendersonville area and would like to donate or help this single mom gift growby further blessing who God has picked out to receive all of this, here is how you can help:

1.  donate other items in your stockpile and arrange for a time to meet me;

2.  donate gift cards to stores, restaurants, or other useful prizes a single mom might not normally be able to get herself;

3.  make plans to purchase some items between now and the last of November to donate.

Really, any way you can come up with to help would be fantastic, just do it! :)

And don’t forget, you can still enter to win two tickets to see Natalie Grant in concert in Hendersonville on August 24.  Enter for yourself or enter for someone you know who could use that type of blessing.  Spread the word to all your friends so they can enter, too!

How do you help those around you?

Filed Under: Donations, Giving Tagged With: , , , ,

Single Mom Gift

June 23, 2011 By 8 Comments

Most of you know my buddy Crystal at Coupon Beat and I do a little thing called The Bargain Blessings Food Pantry.  This year, we are adding something new to our donations.  My church has a single mom event every November.  At the first of March I started collecting at least one of everything I have bought for a huge donation to the event for one lucky single mom.  The idea is to pretty much have her kitchen/household/hygiene needs taken care of for a while with the gift.  Right now everything we have collected is:

Marcal paper towels, Huggies wipes, Olay facial wipes, Bic multi purpose lighter, 4 Bic pens, Cutter bug spray, Lysol air freshener, Dentak flossers, Scotch tape, Kleenex tissues, Biv shavers, Noxzema bikini shavers, Carefree liners, Renuzit air freshener, Aveeno lotion, Suave deodorant, Aquafresh kids toothpaste, 2 Oral B toothbrushes, 2 bars Olay soap, 2 Ivory body washes, Resolve laundry spray, Johnson & Johnson rolled gauze, 2 packs of Band Aids, Reynolds wrap foil,  2 Nestle crunch bars, 5 lbs of Uncle Ben’s rice, Pam cooking spray, French’s Worcestershire sauce, French’s brown mustard, Wacky Mac, Nature Valley granola bars, Ritz Crackerfuls, Peter Pan peanut butter, Velveeta shells & cheese, House Autry Breader, Great Grains cereal, Nestle Chocolate powder mix, Kraft bbq sauce, 4C panko bread crumbs, Weber seasoning, McCormick vegetable seasoning, Mahatma Saffron Rice pouch, Kraft Homestyle Mac n Cheese, Texas Toast croutons, Dole Pineapple, Carnation evaporated milk, Orville Redenbacher popcorn, Terra kettle chips, Hunt’s ketchup, Chi-Chi’s salsa, Crystal Light box of pouches, Betty Crocker potatoes, Lipton Tea family bag box, 2 Chef Boyardee cans, Smuckers Caramel sundae topping, and Grape Kool Aid drink mix (makes 8 qts).

PLUS:  A coupon binder, baseball card pages and a couponing 101 booklet donated by myself.  Crystal at Coupon Beat has agreed to donate coupons to get the mom started.  And my good friend, Melissa at Up On Top Boutique has donated a complete set of hand crocheted dish towels and dish cloths!

This is how much we’ve done after only 3 months!  I am also in the process of getting gift cards donated and other things to abundantly bless whoever God chooses to receive this package.  I can’t even begin to imagine what this will be when it is all finally complete and ready to deliver….God is GREAT!

If you’d like to help, you can donate with my PayPal button on the right sidebar, or leave comments with ideas on other things we can include for this mom, or email and let me know if you have anything you would like to add to the package if you are in the area.

Does anyone else have big plans to share with others for the holidays?

Filed Under: Giving Tagged With: , , , ,
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