This Is The Stuff...

Today was one of those days.  You know the kind.  The one that makes you think you should have stayed in bed.

My schedule was pretty light.  All I needed to do was prepare my house for our Operation Christmas Child area team meeting tonight, make strawberry shortcake, get two packages ready to mail, and meet a friend for lunch.  Easy.

I wanted to get the shortcake baked early in the morning because we've had temperatures in the 90s and our house isn't air conditioned.  I headed out to get strawberries and biscuit mix but had to hit a total of five stores before I snagged both of those.

I came home, set the oven to preheat, mixed the dough, plopped clumps of it on the baking sheet, and popped it into the oven.  When the timer went off 15 minutes later I opened the over door and found the dough still white and thinned to pancake shapes.  Then I noticed the oven wasn't very warm.  I tried turning it off and starting over, but after several tries a half hour later the oven was still not hot.
I resigned myself to going back to the store to buy biscuits.

Next I began the task of wrapping two packages.  Each contained a gift and a recognition certificate.  Somehow I ended up with the certificate in each box not matching the name on the gift.  I also confused the mailing labels.  I'm grateful I figured this out before actually mailing them, but I had to cut the tape on both of them and start over.  By God's grace I was able to preserve the prepaid mailing labels.

There is a bright lining in these small annoyances, though.  I was amazed at how calm I felt in the midst of my few little hours of craziness.  I got to see the Spirit working in me in a way I wouldn't have seen without those menial trials.  It made me hum that Francesca Battistelli song, "This Is The Stuff You Use."  Because, really, it is this little stuff God uses to refine us.

Amazingly, after I returned from a relaxing lunch with my friend, the oven worked fine.  I baked what ended up being flatbread shortbread and still had the angel food cakes I bought at the grocery store for those who didn't want crispy.

And the meeting tonight went well.  A dozen team members + a 90 degree day with no air conditioning = warm fellowship.  But with my media coordinator, Pam, leading the meeting I was able to sit and listen to the banter of a team that's enjoying each other's company while making plans to bless children around the world.  Everyone brought items to fill a shoebox for a 10-14 year old boy and we took a picture of our team to put in the box.

So, in the end, it was one of those days.  You know the kind.  The one that makes you glad God gave you another day to enjoy His grace.

Blogging Beats Logging

Today's "show and tell"-- here are the boards I broke in my Tae Kwon Do class today.  It's been a busy week of volunteering at a day camp for inner city middle schoolers called Bonkers 4 Jesus.  And, yeah, it's been a little bit bonkers.

In addition to my 'minor' class in martial arts I've been assisting with a group of four students who are learning to blog.  It's been fun getting to know them and seeing them work hard to learn something they've never attempted.  Come to think of it, while I've been blogging for some time I've never tried my hand (or feet) at martial arts--so we've all been working at something new.

They got a real kick out of looking at the stats on their blog and discovering that someone from Cameroon was following them.  So, today I wrote them these limericks--

Our followers from Cameroon

Are reading our blog night and noon.

Next people from Yonkers 

Will read about Bonkers

And they'll all be signing up soon.

With pens and computers we wrote

And kept our idea afloat.

We all learned that blogging 

Is more fun than logging.

It's simply a short online note.

They would love to know folks from different areas are checking out their blog, so if you have a moment will you please view their site by going to www.bonkers4jesus.wordpress.com to give them a 'hit'? It would mean a lot.

Meanwhile, this evening we had our first meeting of the core team for our upcoming packing party.  We are making initial plans and talking out logistics for September 17th.  Yikes--when did it get so close?

I had the stuffed animals cleaned out of the living room yesterday but another ten bags of donations arrived tonight.  Back to sorting.

But first I need to get to bed because boards and blogging are on the agenda again tomorrow...

The Bondage of Answered Prayer

Well, it's been ten days since I've written anything.  What have I been doing? I have been a captive of my answered prayers.  All those prayers for stuffed animals have resulted in 800 or more of them coming into my home since Saturday.

Like the poor bear pictured above (when I found this one in a bag of donations I really had to laugh), I've been in bondage to the process of sorting and cleaning and re-sorting and bagging and lugging and...well...you get the picture.

Most of this process takes place in my living room and try as I have the glimpses of animal-free carpet have been fleeting these days.

But I'm not complaining.  Really.

I told my husband I think I deserve a degree or at least some type of certificate for animal maintenance.  The tools of my trade litter the end tables.  There's the dispenser of packing tape (I roll off strips of tape to lift lint from the animal surfaces)--the sturdy comb used to untangle doll's hair, pony's tails, and lion's manes--the scissors for cutting off faded labels or tags and trimming the ends of ribbons--the all-purpose cleaner and nail polish remover to remove marks from vinyl faces or hands.

My triage system seems to get more elaborate.  I hate to see things end up in land fills so I try to give most of the animals a chance at a new life somewhere. If they don't pass muster for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes I can take them to the mission clothing pantry where I volunteer or donate them to a thrift store.

I did end up with one garbage bag of land-fill-destined ones this weekend, though.  Sometimes donations like grubby, matted, once-fuzzy dice are just beyond saving.

Praise God, though, for 800+ animals that are now stored in garbage bags and added to the rest that obscure the surface of the beds and extra carpet space in two spare rooms.  Next project is to find another donated space for them.

Thinking of storage, I realized today that we've had the same storage container since 2010 when we did 12,670 boxes.  We're praying to do more than twice that number this year so it's no wonder our container is nearly filled and we're overflowing into donated basement space.

Meanwhile, since I can't sleep, I'm making a list of all the things I need to discuss with coordinators or team members.  The list keeps growing.

Maybe I'll just go back to reading the new book that arrived in my mailbox today--"Praying Together" by Megan Hill.  Only one chapter in and I know this will be the subject of a blog post all it's own soon.

Because, there's nothing like knowing God hears and answers prayer--even if those answers can be overwhelming.

Season of Weakness

My Operation Christmas Child life has seasons.  As I sat in church this morning I realized I'm entering what I call the season of weakness.  For most of the year I focus on watching God grow our team and enjoy buying items for our upcoming packing party.

When the packing party is still quite a few months away it's fun to shop for things and see how God provides what we will put into those shoeboxes.

Then comes June.  We are nearing T minus three months from the date of our September 17th packing party. It's not a long way off anymore.

Now I spend time thinking of how I should get a team together to plan the event...how I should figure out a way to organize our items better...how I should ramp up our game to make the packing party run more smoothly.  I think of all the things we mentioned in last year's debrief and wonder how to implement improvements.  I. think. too. much.

Meanwhile, I'm praying. I'm telling God I trust Him to make this packing party happen again. I remind myself He always comes through. Still, I think there may be things He wants me to be doing and I don't want to be neglectful.

I was re-reading Exodus chapter 18 this week.  It relates how Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, advises him to recruit more leaders so he won't wear himself out.  It's a great idea, but now Moses had the job of recruiting (and, if he was high-impact, he had to select and equip and lead and develop them all, too.) Yikes!  And he thought being "slow of speech" was a problem...

Now I'm even second guessing the way I sort all these stuffed toysI

Yesterday's seven hours of yard sale shopping only yielded 218 stuffed animals and many of them needed to be washed.  Today as I sorted them I started to worry that just sorting them into 'girls' and 'boys' wasn't enough.

I looked at those cute baby dolls and thought they should go to girls in the 5-9 age group. So...should I keep them in a separate bag?  And if I do, where will I store that?  I'm already keeping some larger stuffed animals in bags in a section of my attic for the 2-4 year old boxes.  For now I guess I'm going to leave them all together and trust God to get them to children who will be blessed by them, regardless of their age.

As I sort toys and clothing items I try to remember to pray that God will lead each one to a child who will be blessed by it.  I want so much for each box to bless a child, and I sometimes long for the days when I carefully packed each box myself...but there's a limit to how many one person can pack.

In some ways it would be easier if each box at our packing party had exactly the same items--or even the same sized items--so I would know each one was full but not too full.  But that's not how God's provided for us, so we take what He provides and pray for ways to make child-blessing combinations in those boxes.

I've attended some fundraising events recently where the signage was magnificent and the organization impeccable.  We don't have that at our packing party, and I don't see it happening this year either.

As I was discussing this with Cathi, my friend and fellow-team-member, the other day, she reminded me, "But really, that's good because it keeps us from boasting.  We always know it could have been better."  She is so right.

I don't really have a life verse, but if I did...I think 2 Corinthians 12:9 would be a top contender.  Paul says, "And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."  Somehow, Paul actually heard Jesus say that to him, because in the red letter edition of the Bible--right in the middle of all that black ink--Jesus's words to Paul are in red.  Jesus said it.  Paul heard it.

And I am hearing it, too.  I can't boast in my leadership; we can't boast in our packing party. But we can boast in our weaknesses because on September 17th when those trucks are stacked with cartons full of 26,000 gift-filled boxes, we will see once again the power of Christ.

And for that, I'll embrace this season...

The Dope on Soap

A bar of soap might not be the most exciting gift a child could find in her shoebox, but this little girl loved the soap she got.  When you've never had your own bar it can seem like a pretty wonderful gift.

Today I decided I'd better make the call to Clean The World in Orlando to order our soap for the upcoming packing party.  I'm glad I did because it will take them up to six weeks to get it produced and shipped and I really want to have it by July 14th for our packing party work day.

Last year I ordered five pallets of soap and ran out.  This year I upped the order to six pallets--32,712 bars of soap to supply our packing party and several others in our area with some to spare.

Cairra Martin, the Global Health Coordinator for Clean The World, was extremely helpful and familiar with Operation Christmas Child.  The cool thing about this organization is they recycle leftover soap from hotels, heat it and render it down again so any bacteria are killed, and then cut and box it to be distributed by nonprofit organizations.

You can buy a carton of soap (116 bars) for $10 or a pallet of 47 cartons (5,452 total bars) for $275.  Shipping charges are additional.  They have a facility in Orlando, Florida and one in the Arizona/Las Vegas area.

If you want to order soap, you can contact Cairra by phone at (407) 574-8353 ext. 1009 or via email at -- cmartin@cleantheworld.org.  She will email you a request form to complete.  After you return it to her she will contact you with a shipping quote.  You can then decide if you want to proceed with the order.

Shipping for six pallets of soap from Orlando to Erie was $950, but, hey, soap is heavy.  Even with the shipping it figures out to be about eight cents for a bar that's about three ounces.  It comes unbagged, though, so you will have the extra investment in purchasing bags and the work of bagging them.

So, as we wait for the delivery, we'll move the spools of rope around to maximize the dwindling space in the storage container...

...and we'll pray for delivery on a day with no rain