I want to learn to truly trust God. Instead of being amazed when God answers prayer, I want to have a grateful nonchalance born of absolute faith that God will keep His word.
But I'm not there yet and so yesterday I was amazed when I was contacted on Facebook by a young woman who knew we were praying for paper for our shoeboxes and called a local printing company to ask for a donation. This company has agreed to supply enough paper for 10,000 boxes! (yes, that exclamation point indicates my lack of absolute faith) God is so good.
I've been praying for 500 stuffed animals each week and last week things were slim. The week before God had provided 1640 in one week but by last Saturday I only had 277 stuffies. I thought it might be the first week that God didn't answer my prayer. But I was surprised (yes, surprised) when I went to church and found a donation of 275 NEW stuffed animals (pictured above). This brought last week's total to 552.
God also answered prayer when I went to Wal-Mart and they allowed me to order a large quantity of crayons. The items are coming in.
I added up shoebox spending a few days ago and found I've already spent almost as much as the total for last year and I still have lots of school supplies to buy, but it didn't worry me. Maybe in some ways God is starting to get His promises more firmly rooted in my too-often-doubting heart.
There's always something to keep trusting God for. Right now I'm trying to figure out what to write for a radio ad for our upcoming packing party. And how to organize volunteers. And how to transport and arrange all the items.
I must have been at the end of the line when God handed out organizational skills so I'm back to trusting. And we know that even our faith comes from God.
So there's nothing to do but trust Him. Truly.
I think God must really enjoy Himself in providing your shoe box goodies, because you are so thankful! Just know that you are not alone in your efforts. God wants those boxes filled EVEN MORE than you do.
ReplyDeleteWow! I admire your commitment serving the Lord through the OCC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know many children are blessed by your kindness!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through Tightwad in Training and am excited to see that you're doing this great work from Erie! I just moved to Erie w/ my husband and have been looking for some ways to make friends and plug into the community at the same time. I work full-time from home, but have flexible hours and would be interested in volunteering. Please feel free to e-mail me at megs 92 at hotmail dot com to let me know if there's some work I could help you with. Thank you so much!
~Megan