The Coffee Tin Story

For those of you who live in the Salmon Creek area, you may know North Creek best by an advertisment that landed on your door step in a coffee tin.  Ahhh, God bless those beautiful tins…

Alecia, a very creative woman at our church, came up with a brilliant advertising campaign strategy two years ago.  The only problem was that her ideas needed some cash behind them…something we were short of at the time.  Part of her strategy required coffee cups with lids, so I hit www.craigslist.com to see if there were any free cups out there.  Up came an ad for several thousand free coffee tins from a company that was shutting down.  I emailed immediately, got a hold of the lady, and she said, “Great, get a 24′ uhaul and meet me on Saturday.”  Seriously, a 24′ uhaul will move the majority of a regular size house.  I clarified twice, irritated her, and decided to shut up and get the uhaul.   

So on Saturday we pull up to get our 5,000 or so tins…except it’s more like 40,000 free tins, thousands of free disposable coffee cups, lids, and a few coffee makers, too.  We loaded it all up, handed the lady a tax receipt, and headed to the office house to unload a garage full of tins.

Long story short, those tins turned into some of the most creative advertising ever when we wrapped labels around them that said, “Life is sweet at North Creek”.  We filled those babies with coffee candy and dropped them on about 20,000 door steps in our area.  Thank you, God, for giving us an abundance! (And bless all of you who have walked a mile or two to deliver some tins!)

Last week we had a guest who got that tin two years ago…some things never die. 🙂  Not too mention, that we are still using those donated coffee cups after literally thousands of cups of coffee…

You never know how God will provide when you put yourself out there.  Get a dream in your spirit and get a strategy in your mind.  God will fill in the gaps.