How Many?

Look at this adorable hand-tie-dyed T-shirt.  My new friend Rachel Hillen made 11 of these for our upcoming Operation Christmas Child packing party.

Here's the neat thing.  Before I received this gift from Rachel our clothing items totaled 21,990.  With these shirts from Rachel we now have 22,001.  Isn't that a great number?

While some folks have been spending time on fantasy football I've been spending lots of time fantasizing about how many shoe boxes we will pack on September 27 & 28.

Last year our packing party total was 21,106.  Our team agreed that was pretty much our maximum.  But I couldn't help but believe God could take us just a LITTLE higher.

It was hard to know how to answer when people asked, "What's the goal this year?"  I didn't want to state it too high, so lately I've been saying--21,500.

Still, I ordered 22,000 shoe boxes and purchased 22,000 bars of soap and 44,000 pencils and 44,000 pens and over 22,000 coloring books.

And even though God's brought in over 1200 stuffed animals in the past few days we are still 6,000 short.

Now, with Rachel's help, we have over 22,000 clothing items.

The tricky part is not knowing how the filler items will hold up.  I so want to be sure each of the boxes we pack will be a blessing to a child and not a half-filled disappointment.

What's your guess?  How many boxes will we pack?