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A
‘clothed-minded’ ministry
Under
the guise of a garage sale
[MARCH
18, 2000] Covert operations are usually left up to military
strategists or secret service agents. But
there’s a certain Lincoln resident who runs her own kind of secret service. There are a lot of garage sale lovers out there, right?
Picture this. You just spotted a garage sale.
You walk up and find children’s clothes galore.
As you find several items you like, you’re already deciding how much
you will and won’t pay for them. Then
when you go to pay for them, the lady who is hosting the garage sale says,
“Everything is free!” She
refuses to take a penny! That is
exactly what you will find when Lincoln resident, Tami Cole, has one of her
Kid’s Closet “garage sales.”
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Tami Cole, who was born and raised in Lincoln and
has remained in Central Illinois her entire life, operates this
big-hearted ministry for children right out of her home at 108
Broadway, where she also runs her own business, “The Sewing
Place.” Collecting
used and new children’s clothing throughout the year and storing
them in her home, she begins her covert garage sales each spring.
She even advertises them in the garage sale section of the
local paper. But when
the patrons come and find items to purchase, she announces that
everything is free and enjoys the reactions that she gets.
She says, “It’s a ministry operating under the guise of a
garage sale.” She has
found that some people will put the things back that they had
planned to buy, stating that they can afford them and would rather
leave them for the ones who cannot.
[Caroline
Cole, daughter of Tami and Terry Cole]
The children’s clothes range in size from small to
large and in style, from blue jeans and t-shirts to dress clothes,
shoes and even some roller skates.
Tami says that at least half of what she gives away comes
from the people of her home church, Spirit Life Ministries, and
therefore considers The Kid’s Closet to be an outreach of that
congregation. She also
gets a lot of the clothes from people hosting real garage sales who
will bring her any children’s clothes they have left over, rather
than having to box them back up into storage or taking them to the
thrift stores.
[Tami
Cole displaying some of the
kids' clothes she will give
away]
Tami says that she is often surprised at the quality
and condition of the clothes that she receives. “These aren’t clothes that you wouldn’t want your child
to be seen in. I’ve
even had some kids’ clothes that could be worn on Easter Sunday .
. . brand new stuff that still has the store tags on them!”
She says that she doesn’t try to give anything away that
she wouldn’t want her own daughter to wear.
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The Kid’s Closet began in the summer of 1990 when
Tami and her husband Terry were living in Decatur and
attending Maranatha Assembly of God.
Clothes were donated by members of that
congregation, and Tami would ‘set up shop’ at the
church on Saturdays and give the children’s clothes
away. “When this started, it really caught on.”
Says Tami, “We gave away truck loads of kid’s
clothes.” They
eventually found their greatest impact on the inner city
families of Decatur through a Maranatha sister church.
Moving to Lincoln in the fall of 1995, Tami didn’t
want The Kid’s Closet ministry to end.
This is when she began with the faux garage sale
idea. She
tells of an incident that took place last spring.
She had set up her tables full of children’s
clothes in her garage, put up her sign and waited for her
“customers.” Two
women came up and began to look through the items.
When Tami spoke to them, she realized they did not
speak or understand English.
They only spoke Spanish.
With the little Spanish that she knew, Tami made
them understand that everything there was for children and
it was all free. She
said that the women’s eyes lit up and they began to pick
out the things they needed for their children.
They insisted on hugging her when they left.
“Love is a language that is not necessarily
expressed with words.”
Tami says, “That is what The Kid’s Closet
does.”
[Tami
and Caroline Cole]
Tami’s vision for The Kid’s Closet is to
eventually have a place of storage and operation, with
more room than her house, where she can give the clothes
away on a more regular basis. Her husband, Terry, and her friend Janet Tallman have also been
active in helping with this children’s ministry. Anyone who would like to donate children’s clothes in good
condition may call Tami at 217-732-7930.
Anyone needing children’s clothes may also call.
[Curtis
Sutterfield]
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