Normal?

As I mentioned in my last post, last Friday night I went to a local church that was having a rummage sale to ask them if I could 'shop' their sale early for stuffed animals since I couldn't be there first thing Saturday morning. When I explained Operation Christmas Child to them, they were happy to help and allowed me to choose a large bag of stuffed animals. I had taken my own mega large and thick garbage bag but it somehow had developed a 3" diameter hole on one side. When I went to pick up my bag and pay for my animals the next morning I noticed that someone had covered the hole with a bumper sticker (see above)

I had to laugh as I wondered if that was a random choice or if they picked it just for me. And as I thought about it I realized that maybe normal people really do worry me. I mean, life with Jesus is anything BUT normal according to the world's standards. And life on this Operation Christmas Child shoebox journey is even more 'out of the box' by being so far 'in the box'.

I know this stuffed animal theme might be getting old but it's the story of my life right now. And, no, it's not normal. This week we were praying for 629 animals by May 31st to answer the prayer goal of 2,000 animals in May.

On Wednesday I got 165 at a thrift store in North East, 29 at the Salvation Army, and 44 donated from last week's yard sales via Kathy Herrmann. So I embarked on my safari this morning needing 391 animals to make the goal.

I stopped at so many sales where, after telling them about Operation Christmas Child, I was given donations of beautiful animals. And the best blessing was that I saw three of my area team members on the yard sale trail also. I really feel like we are in this as a team now.

At the last subdivision sales I met one of my prayer team members, Priscila Mirone, and she'd collected four large bags of animals--many of them donated, too. I'd been keeping a tally sheet all morning and knew that at that point we still lacked 128 animals.

Priscila brought her bags to my car and we began to count them and when the final ones were counted there were 134--God allowed us to meet the goal with SIX to spare! Priscila told me how she'd enjoyed the three early Saturday morning hours as she walked with God to all those sales and prayed for all the people she met or even saw. Excitedly we hugged each other in the street while we prayed and thanked God for His goodness. Not normal, probably, but who cares?

And when I got home there was a Facebook message from Kristin Hesch telling me her neighbor gave her 50 animals so we already have a start on next month's goal. I love this Operation Christmas Child journey.

I never, ever want to be normal again.