Santa On A Bike....and Canning

On 1/2 Trav and I went on a quick bike ride. We wanted to drop off some Christmas gifts to the Cans4Christ Canning President Kates and Princess Tami (the books shipped a week ago but just arrived at our house today! OY!!!). **Delivering these gifts made us look like "Santa on a bike"! LOL! 

Before we left our house, I checked how far we have traveled on our bikes. We bought our bikes on Dec. 26, 2011 and last year we rode about 500 miles!! That's not bad considering our bike trips are "stop go stop go stop" so we can pick up cans. LOL! 

Our bike trip today was just around our neighborhood. And surprisingly we found SEVERAL cans alongside the road! 

Miles: 3.55
Bags collected: about 3/4 of a bag

2013 Goals for Cans4Christ

1/4/13

As the new year starts... Cans4Christ has reflected on the past year (actually only 10 months). We have come up with some goals for our blog and ministry. 

Cans4Christ Blog Goals: 

• Scheduled posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday-- it's best for our followers to know when we will be posting (I will do my best at this goal!!)! **NOTE: I can only post if there is something to write about...hopefully we will have crushing parties, recycling routes, and recycling center trips to tell you about on a weekly basis! :)
• Up-to-Date posts-- I've received some feedback about how "behind" I am on posting events/etc. It's easier to post if I have material! LOL! However, I cannot be behind like I have been! 

Cans4Christ Ministry Goals: 

• Frequent updates at church-- I would love to speak about our totals or events monthly.
• Compromise-- Trav and I need to work out a schedule that fits for collecting cans and recycling.
• Volunteers-- we really need to find more volunteers that would help collect in NP or take cans to the recycling center.
• FAC Recycling Day-- Kates and I have talked about having a recycling day at the church quarterly....details need to be worked out.

I am overwhelmed with the success of our first year with Cans4Christ. I never thought this is how big we could get or would be!!! I look forward to seeing the recycled totals grow!! I also am excited to see where God takes us in 2013! 

Photo Credit

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  

A Blessing and Praise Report

1/3/13

We have two more posts from 2012 that we wanted to share with you....today's post really caught the Cans4Christ crew by surprise!!! 

The Story: Monday nights we have a regular route. Sometimes Kates and I stop by houses that we've never collected from before and ask if they would like to donate their cans to C4C. One Monday we met Gail (another Christian who agreed to let us take her cans weekly!). The next day I saw Gail in the grocery store. We chatted and talked about C4C and about her family--I found out that her husband had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Stomach Cancer. I told her that we would pray for him and stop by her house regularly. We did just that and chatted with Gail whenever we saw her outside or if she came to the door. Fast forward about a month-- while collecting cans from Gail's house, we met her son. He chatted with us and informed us that he worked at a bread warehouse and could donate bread to our church. We told him that would be wonderful and gave him our flyer (with contact info). Fast forward to Christmas Eve 2012....

The Blessing: I received a text at 7:30am (a bit too early for me but I still responded! LOL!) from Wayne, Gail's son. He let me know that he had a TON of bread for our church and that he needed me to pick it up today. 

I was soooooo excited that I started calling around and getting things ready-- this was the perfect day for our church to pass out bread/etc. because FAC usually does a special event for Christmas Eve. This was our 6th year having a service and music down at Laishley Park in Punta Gorda-- outside! We have had over 3000 attend this service before! PERFECT-- we could pass bread out there! 

Kates and I met up with Wayne in the afternoon and literally loaded up the truck! It was packed with donuts, cakes, muffins, and breads. We ran out of room! Bags and trays of bread everywhere! 

I wish I would have thought about getting a pic of the back of the truck--it literally was filled to the top of the cab with trays and bags of bread/cookies/donuts/etc. OH MY! 

The Praise: While we were loading up the goodies, Kates and I talked with Wayne about different things. I asked Wayne how his dad was doing with his chemo/radiation treatments. I was shocked by the news that we were given---Wayne's dad had finished treatment and went for a check-up this past week. The doctor said that there is NO EVIDENCE of cancer!!!!! There is only one reason---JESUS healed Wayne's dad!! Praise the LORD!! 

I cannot even explain how thankful we are to Wayne!!! Our church family and guests were sooooo blessed! And I was sharing Wayne and his dad's story all night-- it def. brought tears to our eyes!! I have to give credit to God for putting C4C in contact with Gail....whose son contacted us....and donated so much to our church.... on the most perfect night!!! God orchestrated it ALL!!!! 

These pictures were taken before our service/event---we had about four tables FILLED with goodies to pass out!!! THANK YOU, Wayne!!!!

Please continue to pray for healing for Wayne's dad, as well as praising the Father for this miracle!!! 

Happy New Year, 2012 Recycling Recap, and Yelling

1/2/13

Happy NEW Year, Cans4Christ fans!!

We have a quick recap of our last trip to the recycling center in 2012 to share today. This trip was on: 12/21/12.

Today was Trav's day off....but I made him work for C4C! We started with our Friday route and then headed to the recycling center for one of two trips today. 

We had to wear our masks because we hadn't emptied several bins of cans---the were super gross!!! 

Trav and I talked about heading down to the recycling center with some lunch for the staff as a gift for their kindness and help this year. We rushed loading the truck and headed to get sandwiches/etc. for the crew. It was about 11:40 when we pulled up to the center...only to find the following: 

THE DOORS WERE CLOSED FOR LUNCH! We were late by 10 minutes! I called their phone (thinking that they wouldn't answer) but they picked up! HOOOORAY! I explained to them who were were and what we wanted to do. The worker agreed to come outside and meet us--- when she walked out, she explained that she knew exactly who we were and asked if I was the one who always took pictures for the blog! LOL! We were so excited that we were able to drop off their lunches! 

Since they wouldn't open up for another 20 minutes, Trav and I decided to drive to the church and load up the cans in the C4C trailer. We thought we had enough space in the back of the truck for those bags as well. 

We got to work packing the bigger bags with small bags and loose cans. Who knew this trailer could hold so many bags!!???? LOL! 

And then it came time to put on the straps....Trav freaked me out by stepping along the edge of the truck bed to secure the bags. I don't like to yell at Trav...but when it's windy and he's walking on the edge of a truck, I don't feel bad about yelling! 

We had just a big enough load that we only had to tie down three extra bags. No big deal because we do this all the time! So off we went to the recycling center--for the second time today:)

Not more than a mile down the road, we heard a noise. A noise we had heard one too many times before....a large bag had fallen off the truck and landed in the middle of 41 (at one of the most busiest times of the day and year!!)!!! 

Look closely--that big black spot is the bag. The smaller black spot is Trav running to get the bag! 

Trav ran to go get the bag (and he had to run pretty far to get it!)! Praise the Lord that there weren't many cars on the road behind us--we were the last to go through a stoplight!

We readjusted the bags and strapped everything down again. And for the second time today I had to raise my voice at Trav! He decided to jump on the edge of the truck AGAIN--this time his back was to the busy road! DANGEROUS! He better never do that again! 

Once we got to the recycling center, we unloaded the truck. Here's a pic of bag that fell off--not bad for falling and rolling across the road! 

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled today: 151

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 12/21: 2,688 pounds!!!!!

Congrats everyone!! Cans4Christ is doing awesome!!! Keep collecting your cans and random metals:) 

Merry Christmas from the C4C Crew

Hello, friends:}

On behalf of the Canning Crew--- Merry CHRISTmas!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We hope you are having a wonderful holiday--remembering the reason for the season:) 

Last year, Olsen was caught staring at our nativity scene below the Christmas tree. I love that even HE knows the REASON for celebrating!!! 

This year we changed up our decorations---Travis started with our outside lights about a week ago (at 11:30pm!!!!!)! You can see Olsen helping him- LOL! I helped a bit (with the ladder) but most of the time was in the garage writing C4C blog posts! 

This year, we also had our sweet friends, The Nunez family, come over to check out our Christmas lights and decorations. We snapped this picture of the kids looking at the nativity. PRECIOUS!! These KIDS really do know the REASON for the season!! LOVE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!!!! 

Many blessings and Merry CHRISTmas from the Cans4Christ crew:}

Another Surprise

12/09/12

We love visiting church on Sunday because we get to see how many cans have been dropped off during the week at the C4C trailer. We love checking out how full it gets! 

This Sunday we found another SURPRISE waiting for us by the trailer. 

The surprise is the baby stroller.

Unfortunately, we cannot recycle baby strollers. We are thinking of making a sign with examples to place near the trailer. We love the donations, but we want to make sure everyone knows this isn't a trash bin. 

We need to clarify a couple of things again... THIS post describes what we "CAN" and "CANNOT" collect in the C4C trailer. 

Items that we CANNOT recycle: 

• cat food cans
• soup or vegetable cans
• tuna cans
• aluminum foil (although it's "aluminum", it cannot be recycled)
• aluminum/tin cooking containers
• newspapers
• food wrappers, etc.
• juice boxes

So what do we, Cans4Christ, collect??? ALUMINUM CANS! Any aluminum can--soda, pop, beer, tea, etc. We don't care what brand or what liquid it once had inside....we just need CANS:) 

photo credit

More Surprises: We keep getting cat food tins and soup cans....we cannot take these and they leave a mess in the trailer (bees, bugs, and a smell). 

Please only drop off ALUMINUM cans!!! 

Again, we are so thankful that you are giving to our can ministry--and we are thankful that you want to help! So please keep collecting and donating aluminum cans for the First Alliance Church of Port Charlotte, FL building campaign.

If you would like to donate weekly--you can find our Cans4Christ trailer at the FAC campus. Or email us {cans4christ at gmail dot com} to set up a donation pick-up!!! 

Already??? With 2 Surprises!

12/7/12

You would think that we wouldn't be visiting the Recycling Center any time soon because of all the cans we recycled HERE and HERE and HERE! We just visited there on the first of the month. 

However, we received a phone call saying that the Cans4Christ trailer was full and needed to be emptied! 

While working, we heard some noises coming from the bags. I was a bit nervous to check it out... but Trav wasn't:)

SURPRISE #1: He found out that there were SEVERAL bees in many of the bags! We had to quickly close those bags so the bees wouldn't get us. YIKES!! 

Not sure you can see them, but the black dots in the white bags are bees! They were in SO MANY bags!!!

We loaded everything up and did not get stung! Praise the Lord!!! 

We headed to the recycling center....SURPRISE #2!! I cannot believe how many pounds we had collected toady!

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled today: 114 

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 12/07: 2,537 pounds!!!!!

Congrats everyone!! Cans4Christ is doing awesome!!! Keep collecting your cans and random metals:)