On The Fifth Day

(singing) On the fifth day of National Collection Week my good team gave to me--Five answered prayers; four wide rolls of tape, three carton pallets, two trucks of boxes and an OCC collection victory.

For the past several years this is the night in Operation Christmas Child's National Collection Week when I wish I were more organized. I'm not very good at keeping records and even worse at knowing where I put the records I do keep.

So I start wondering---how many boxes did this relay center bring in last year? And what were our numbers at the collection center on this day in 2010?

The truth is, I don't know. I know what our area team goal is and I know how many boxes God gave us last year and the year before that. But I don't know the markers along the way, and, anyway, when you think about it every year is different. We add new relay centers and it changes the dynamics of collection week.

I do have records of what individual churches and groups brought in last year and most have been up in their shoebox numbers. That's an encouraging sign.

Tomorrow I'm going to drive around and visit a few more relay centers. I'm praying for God's direction to keep me from getting lost. Maybe tomorrow's tour will give me more of an idea of where we stand compared to last year.

I do know that the first truck left from Erie today with 4,474 boxes on it. Do I know how many were on the first truck last year? Sadly, no.

But we're trusting God that we'll have all those numbers figured out by Monday.