Last Day Off

This was my last day off of Thanksgiving vacation.  I always have a hard time knowing how to use these days when I'm off work--whether they should be productive or restful.

Now that the Operation Christmas Child boxes are gone, I had fun today packing a different kind of box.  This one was full of Christmas gifts for 16 children in an orphanage in Haiti.  It was fun to pack this box knowing that the missionaries we support will be able to give them to the children directly.

The first box I packed was too small to hold everything.  So I had to get a bigger box.  The second one was too big but that problem was easily remedied by filling it with more stuff.

I found a home for the 8 deflated soccer balls that I couldn't find ball pumps for.  Last night's shopping trip took me to four different stores to find the perfect 8 African-American Barbie dolls and God provided.  It was so much fun to stuff that carton with 33 pounds of stuffed animals and jewelry and cups and toothbrushes and coloring books and cars.

In the afternoon I sent out seven press releases to newspapers about the Operation Christmas Child local totals and I already got a response from an editor in Warren.  That's a real blessing.

But the best blessing of all came as I looked up and read the promises in Psalm 41:1-3.  Here's what God has to say:

"Blessed is the one who considers the poor!  In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.  The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health."

I claim this promise for my friends Sarah and Shawn who are traveling today to meet the special little girl they are adopting from Eastern Europe (the 3rd girl with special needs to be adopted into their family from that area.)

And I claim this promise for my friend Mary Damron who has been responsible for motivating millions of OCC shoeboxes to be packed and is now valiantly battling cancer.

I claim this promise for my tired OCC team member, another adoptive mother, who needs the strength to lead a two-hour rehearsal for a children's musical tonight (yikes!)

And I claim this promise for myself.