Sixteen, Sixteen.....Sold for 15 beans

A few weeks ago when we had church campout, we also had our second annual bean auction. All ages can participate by offering to make, do, or give something to be included. In the last two years, we have had everything up for auction...making a batch of cookies, babysitting, help plant a flower bed, free oil change, and a walleye fishing trip. This year we even had someone offer to do some decorative welding (No one was sure what that was, and the guy who posted it said he had never done it either). For each item posted, ten beans are given in exchange.

The slips of paper are put in a hat and the bidding begins. You honestly have to be a bit careful. I mean, your bidding against your friends, and all. I decided to stop bidding and let a friend have a sewing machine tune-up, but others let me get a couple hours of free babysitting and a dress sewn to my liking.

There was one item that I really wanted. It was a pontoon ride. It sounded wonderful. The lake, gentle breeze, my children loving every minute... There were two in the hat. The first one went really high and I finally let it go, but I was determined to give up a huge majority of the remainder of my 70 tickets to get it. The second pontoon ride came up and the bidding war (Christian style :) ) began. Ah, yes, I did get the pontoon ride...for only 15 tickets! A true bargain.

Really, the point of the auction is to encourage us as a body of believers to spend more time together and serve each other. It's good, clean fun.

So a couple nights ago, I called the hosts to cash in on my coupon. I was a free evening for them, and so plans were made. I had supper on the table when Keith got home so we could be off and running as soon as possible. It was a bit more windy on the lake than I thought it would be from looking on weather.com, but it was fun. The hosts had fishing licenses, so they tried a bit of fishing. It would have been great if they would have caught some, but we did get quite a few grass bass (weeds).

All in all, the evening was well worth my 15 beans. The fellowship was worth much more than that.