About four years ago, I had my second back surgery. My lower three vertebrae are fused together with rods and screws. After the first surgery, several of the screws broke, and had to be dug out with a bone knife and replaced with new ones. While I was recuperating, I began to take short walks, then gradually longer ones. I was shocked by the amount of trash there was along the roads in Jefferson County where I live. The first thing I noticed was all the aluminum cans that were out there.  I started taking a bag along to put the cans in, but passing up the rest of the trash began to bother me, so I began to take two, one for cans, one for trash. I'd recycle the cans and use the money for fishing, hunting, etc. It was nice to have the extra spending money, and the walking was good for me. I contacted the public works department in Hillsboro, Mo. and let them know what I was doing. They put a sign up at each end of Kneff Rd., in Imperial, and also Old Highway M, between Kneff Rd. and Old Antonia Rd. recognizing me for my efforts. They supply trash bags for me, and even come out and pick them up when I'm done. 
 

When I first got the idea, I was working for the Post Office as Postmaster, Pevely, Mo. One day Mike Sardo came in to get his mail. I knew he and his wife Louise ran the Jefferson County Rescue Mission in Pevely, but I didn't know what they really did. Mike and I developed a friendship and sometimes when he came in to get his mail, we'd have undeliverable items, such as baby diapers, etc. Instead of throwing them in the dumpster, we'd give them to Mike, figuring someone could use them.

 
The next time I went walking to pick up cans, (April 2004), it was very clearly spoken to my heart that I should be giving the money I collected to the Mission in Pevely. I called Mike the next morning and told him I felt the Lord had put on my heart I was to give the money collected from my cans to the Mission, and so it began.

 

I would turn in the cans to the recycling place, get a receipt for the money, and drop off the money to the Mission on the way home. Mike would send me an acknowledgement letter in the mail, and I would staple the receipt from the recycling center to the letter and file it. I decided to call my efforts: "Cans for Christ."

Initially, I was very secretive about my efforts. Other than my wife, and Mike and Louise, few people knew what I was doing. I reasoned that the Scribes and Pharisees were very vocal about their giving and fasting, and Jesus said, "They had their reward."  I didn't want to appear to be bragging, and I felt that if I let people know about it, it would somehow take away from what I was doing.  Gradually, I began to feel, if I went about it right, it would be an opportunity not only further bless the Mission, but it could also be a chance for others to share in the blessing of helping others, through ministries like Mike and Louise, and George. 

 

Eventually, close family and friends were told what I was doing and why. They began to save cans for me, and our efforts together have multiplied what we are able to give - at a much faster rate than I could do alone.

I decided to have a jacket made to wear while I was picking up the roads.  I felt it would not only let people know what I was doing, but might possibly witness to someone, or maybe even plant a seed in the process. The public works department likes for us to wear orange for safety, when we're picking up cans, so I took an old, orange hunting jacket, and had the words "Cans for Christ", "J.C. Rescue Mission (636) 475-3030", and "Ephesians 2:8-10" lettered on the back. I had contacted a pastor friend of mine, and asked him for a verse, describing what I was doing. When he suggested Ephesians 2:8-10, I asked him to read it to me.  It talks about how good works don't save us, but that because we are God's workmanship, we will do good works as have been pre-ordained to us. Perfect, I thought! That will also serve to remind me that HE gets the credit, not me.

A little while later, I asked Mike and Louise if I could put magnetic signs on my truck, with the Mission's phone number, so people would see what I was doing and that hopefully they would call the Mission and ask if they could help in some way.

Over 90,000 cans and three years later, Mike and Louise asked me to be a board member, and I accepted.  A few months ago, one of the churches I attend had a guest visitor, George Hutchings. George runs a ministry called Eagle Wings, in North St. Louis. His ministry is getting gang members off the streets, and leading them to the Lord. George had about a dozen or so ex gang members come up and testify about how their lives had been changed, thanks to George. George spoke to us and asked that anyone so led please consider supporting his ministry. Again my heart was touched. I let Mike and Louise know that I would like to give some of the money collected from cans to George, and like the good Christian people they are, they readily agreed, adding it was my ministry to do with as I wished. The Lord confirmed to me I was doing the right thing the following week, when I collected more cans in one week then the previous whole month combined!

It is awesome, and also humbling to feel that you are doing God's work, but I believe with all my heart that I am. Want to see how mysteriously God works? While talking to Mike and Louise about "George", I learned that Mike and George who had not seen each other for 40 YEARS were once co-workers at Wicks Furniture!  Mike and George have since been in touch with each other. Who would have thought something as simple as picking up cans, would re-unite two old friends, who both just "happened" to be doing the Lord's work?