This has been a super shopping week. Last Saturday I traveled to three Wal-Mart stores and netted 410 pairs of gloves at 25 cents each. Then I stopped at our local Gabriel Brothers store. I'd been there two days before and none of the shoes were marked down, yet on Saturday I was able to buy 48 pairs of good quality shoes for $1.00 each. Sometimes I get the impression that God saves these bargains for me and has children in mind He's planning to bless with them. Add to that more than 50 shirts and sweaters and it was a good weekend haul.
I finally got all of that stashed and managed to vacuum the carpet in the house on Monday--just in time for Tuesday's shopping run. On Tuesday I had a hunch that Dollar General would mark their winter clothing and shoes down to 90% off, so just before their opening time of 8:00 am I pulled up to the door of the nearest store. When the manager saw me, she unlocked the door and motioned me in. "It's 90%!" she exclaimed as I grabbed a shopping cart and headed for the right aisle. I'd been there the day before to scout things out so I picked up my choices within a few minutes and headed to the cash register. I was able to sneak in a trip to one more Dollar General before I arrived at work 15 minutes late (good thing I didn't take a lunch break on Monday).
Instead of going to lunch that day I headed for still another Dollar General and snagged 130 more items. After school I hopped on I-90 and made the 20 mile drive to North East and worked my way back all the way out to the airport. I put 50 miles on the car but hit five more stores and the final tally of good clothing items was 377. That sorting and bagging is still in progress.
Yesterday I added up the number of clothing items God's provided so far this year. At this time in 2009 I had fewer than 3,000. And this year? 7,023 already.
It's abundantly clear. God is up to something big.
Oh my goodness! What you are doing is amazing! Thank you for the encouragement! How do you handle shipping cost?
ReplyDeleteAshleigh, it's such a God-thing. He provides all the items in ways only He can do. As for shippin--I definitely can't make the $7.00 per box. I do send money on a monthly basis for shipping costs and get other donations to. I try to get at least $1.00 per box for the year and I pray that God will provide for the ministry through others. I talk with the head folks at OCC about this a few years ago (God opened doors for me to do that in an amazing way) and they told me to keep packing boxes even if I can't make the total shipping costs. Thanks to you, too, for all you're doing to spread the word about OCC.
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