Preparations are underway for Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church’s sixth annual “Ranch on Jesus Yard Sale” Aug. 12 and 13 to benefit the Ranch on Jesus Orphanage in Uganda. Donations should start coming in from throughout the county Monday before the sale and volunteers will sort and price them for the 7 a.m. opening on Friday.
Donations can be dropped off Monday, Aug. 8, through Wednesday, Aug. 10 , from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Adult clothing should be limited to in-style, gently used items.
Carriage Lane began its association with Ranch on Jesus Orphanage seven years ago when 20-year-old Jamie Rosser of Peachtree City went with a team from Covenant College to Uganda, a country with over 5 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
While there Jamie met Sarah Kamara, a young Ugandan woman who was taking children off the street and caring for them in an unfurnished building. Upon returning home Jamie had the idea to have a yard sale at the church and, with the aid of dozens of volunteers, raised over $7,000. That Christmas the Carriage Lane congregation stepped forward and donated beds and mattresses for the children so they would no longer have to sleep on mats on the dirt floor.
Efforts to aid the children continued at Carriage Lane from members and the missions committee with various projects at the orphanage. A Child Sponsorship Program was launched with many church families “adopting” orphans. By providing assistance with food, shelter and school fees and through the exchange of letters, relationships were built and lives were directly impacted. Ranch on Jesus Orphanage Ministries became an official Ugandan NGO with Sarah and her husband, Theophilus, directing the home and establishing a primary school in the community.
Upon graduation, Jamie and her husband, Scott Laslo, launched Pearl Ministries (www.PearlMinistries.org) which in 2007 became an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The donor base continued to grow with new churches and sponsors.
The sale of jewelry and crafts brought back to the U.S. by the Laslos opened new avenues of support for the ministry. In 2010, Pearl Ministries officially launched KANZI® (www.KanziCraft.com), a for-profit initiative which supports the non-profit, the orphanage, and East African artisans with fair market prices for their goods sold internationally.
Ornaments 4 Orphans (www.Ornaments4Orphans.org), another initiative of Pearl Ministries, raises funds and awareness by selling handmade African ornaments in churches and businesses that sponsor trees each Christmas.
Carriage Lane has now hosted five yard sales raising over $45,000.
The sale runs Friday, Aug. 12 from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 13, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kanzi Craft will have a large assortment of African crafts and jewelry for sale as well.
Carriage Lane is at the corner of Ga. Highway 54 and Walt Banks Road in Peachtree City.
