Packing Party Prepping

This is packing party prepping week for our Operation Christmas Child packing party and God is already doing great things for us.

The cartons, boxes and labels were delivered on Monday and volunteers were soon hard at work getting those labels attached to the boxes so they'll be ready for filling.  As of last night we have all but 5600 of those boxes labeled.  Amazing!

And we've been hard at working putting soap into bags and have fewer than 6000 more to bag.

We're so far ahead this year that we have at least one packing line completely set up and waiting for 21 students coming on a field trip from a Christian school to pack boxes today.

I can't believe how neat everything looks this year.  Frankly, that scares me a a little.

I was disappointed last night when I opened a few bales of the washcloths we bought and found they were literally a balled-up mess and had some that were stained or had holes in them.  We are laying them out as flat as possible and praying they'll still be a blessing to the kids who receive them.  Should have checked them out earlier.

Now I'm strategizing about how much labeling and soap bagging to leave for the actual day of the party so we have sit-down jobs available for those who can't walk around and fill boxes.

I'm also, as always, looking at lists and wondering if we will really have enough items to fill 23,000 boxes.  We don't have many miscellaneous filler items at all and I'm not sure how they will hold out.

So I have to put the lists aside and pray.  Lord, you are sovereign.  Use these simple items we've collected.  Multiply them and use them to bless children around the world for Your glory.