Counting Down The Zoo

In my favorite movie "Facing The Giants" the story is told of a farmer who prayed for rain but also prepared his fields to receive it.  So...as we pray for God to rain down stuffed animals on us I've been preparing by cleaning my attic to give me more storage space.

We visited our daughter this weekend and picked up the 365 stuffed animals she scored at Walmart after Easter in her area.  I sorted and bagged them last evening.  As close as I can figure, I think we still need about 21,650 more animals.  At this time last year we needed 22,700 so we're actually a little bit further ahead this year.

Still, if our packing party ends up being in September (still don't have that date confirmed now) we have less than five months to collect.  That means collecting over 1,000 animals on average each week.  Or maybe God will provide them all in the last week so we don't have to store them.  We are praying and trusting Him.

This photo from the Samaritan's Purse website illustrates how much these stuffed animals mean to the children who receive them.  This little girl carried her new bear around all day at the recent Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution.  

As I sort and count stuffed animals I often pause over them to pray for each child who will receive them--asking God to begin now to open their hearts and the hearts of their families to receive the love  of Jesus.

Meanwhile, we've also been praying for more members for our prayer team.  Just this weekend God blessed us with another new application and leads on a couple of other potential members.  Please pray with us for a Prayer Mobilization Coordinator and a strong prayer team to intercede for us.

And...all but one person on our team have completed their recommitments to the team for another year.

Now I'm gearing up for tomorrow night's area team meeting where we will hopefully approve our 2016 ministry plan as well as meet as individual teams, spend some time praying together, and celebrate our completed affirmations with pizza.

When we all get crammed into my house a meeting can be a zoo, too, but I'm still counting down to it.