You Just Never Know

I've been praying for more than a few weeks about this delivery of eight pallets of shoebox items coming for our 2017 Operation Christmas Child packing party and finally...

Today was the day...

Considering it is December 27 in Erie, PA, God answered our prayers for great weather. It was windy and 34 degrees but the pavement was dry and there was no snow when those eight pallets got dropped this morning.  And God provided an amazing crew of a lucky 13 volunteers to unload those pallets.

But...you just never know.

I was worried those pallets would be open boxes containing the 28,416 pairs of shoelaces and 10,950 belts.  I was prepared to put them into cartons for storage in the container.

As it turns out, the shoelaces not only arrived in individual small boxes but were also packed in even smaller boxes of six inside those outer boxes.  I knew they'd have to be removed from that packaging before the packing party.  I wasn't planning to do that today.

But...you just never know.

While I was opening and inspecting the three pallets of cartons of belts (also surprisingly in individual cartons instead of one big box) I wasn't really paying attention to the volunteers who were toting all those individual boxes of shoelaces into the church gym so they could begin opening them and putting them into larger cartons.

It feels like the storage container is shrinking.  We got the cases of belts stored for future processing.  They are great quality and fun colors but I'm worried that if we take them out of their compact packaging before the packing party they'll take up too much storage room.

Still pondering this belt dilemma, I walked into the gym to find the scene above that made me gulp. This impromptu work day was unanticipated and the piles of hundreds of boxes seemed
overwhelming.

But...you just never know.

Those busy volunteers kept working.  After a few hours they'd managed to box up about 10,000 of the 28,416 pairs of laces but it was apparent we couldn't finish this job today.  So we strategized about how to clean up and make plans to complete the job another time. Unopened boxes were toted back to the storage container and lined up against other items that also still need to be processed.  Thankfully, there's still a narrow walkway in the container.

Cardboard was broken down for recycling.  Pam filled her little blue car with cartons of different-sized cartons of purple shoelaces to take home to process.  We filled our van with cardboard and still more cartons of laces.

Those weeks of prayers were answered beyond what I ever anticipated.  Once again I look at the stacks in the storage container and realize there are nine more months until the packing party.  When I find the next big deal what will I do?  It's hard to imagine there's space for much more.

But...you just never know.