Bags In Boxes

I realize this might look like some type of sidewalk sale but it's actually the site of the most recent delivery for next year's Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

I missed the call from the trucking company on Friday and couldn't return their call until early Monday morning.  Unfortunately, they couldn't get the shipment out on Monday--the day when the temperature reached almost 70 degrees and the sun shone brightly.

So, the prayed-over delivery came on Tuesday--a brisk and cloudy day.  A perfect SEVEN pallets, each loaded with one huge box of tote bags, were delivered--enough to completely block the church driveway.

My sidekick, Pam, and another team member, Sue, started right in on unloading.  We'd saved all the large cartons that were left over when we consolidated last week's shipments of hats and visors.  God blessed us by having the hats delivered first so we had something to put the tote bags in.

The totes vary in size and thickness.  Some are thickly padded and insulated while others are thin and take less space in the box.  We devised a plan to count them in groups of 25 and make a mark on the carton for each group as we nestled them in.  Each large box could accommodate anywhere from 175- 250 tote bags.

We weren't far into the task when Amanda came by to pick up some OCC boxes and ended up blessing us by staying to help count and stow.

It took about four hours and a total of 24 large cartons to finish the job.  You'd be really entertained if we'd managed to figure out how to take a video of three women over the age of 60 working to figure out how to utilize every centimeter of storage space in that container.  It was like a giant Jenga game accompanied by lots of huffing, puffing, and shoving, but we did a great job if I do say so myself.  I can't wait to see who gets to unload those boxes of scissors that we wedged on top of the five-carton stacks next year.

About twelve hours after we finished the job our area was hit with winds up to 60 mph.  Many trees were blown down around the city.

Needless to say, we're thanking God that delivery came on Tuesday rather than on Wednesday.  Thank You, Lord, for having those details all in the bag.