They say a picture is worth a thousand words...so to keep this blog short I'm only using one picture (not to mention the fact that the pictures I have are on my phone and not on my laptop.) This one is my daughter and son-in-law (and my unborn grandchild) who drove in from Ellwood City to volunteer at yesterday's packing party. I really don't have witty words this morning, so I thought I'd let you listen in while I spend some time thanking God...
Awesome God, I never want to take for granted the miracles You do for me every day because of Your goodness, but I do want to learn to expect them. I want to expect Your goodness because of Your character--because GOODNESS is Who You are. This year, Father, I saw Your goodness in ways that are, to use Paul's words from Ephesians 3:20, "exceedingly, abundantly beyond all I could ask or imagine."
And I asked. Oh, I asked over and over and over...and then I asked some more. Still, you went beyond the asking.
I asked for 600 volunteers on Saturday. You gave us 379 volunteers on Saturday but also 155 volunteers Friday night and 75 volunteers on Friday morning from more than 26 different churches and 19 different groups. And...you knew we needed volunteers through the week to fold those boxes and sent us faithful volunteers day by day, culminating with more than 60 on Thursday night. You knew our needs beyond my asking.
I asked over and over for enough items to fill 27,000 boxes in a way that would bless each child who receives one. But You knew there were 28,032 children to be blessed and You provided fillers and wisdom for Amanda and Pam and others who made the decisions on how to use them. And those boxes were well-filled up until the very last...beyond my asking.
So many prayed with me week by week for stuffed animals--enough to put one in every one of 27,000 boxes to bless children in Your name. And they came...day by day and week by week. Several thousand came in on Friday, on Saturday morning more bags were at the back door of my home, and even more were brought to the packing party. Father, in Your abundance You poured them out so, like the 12 baskets of loaves and fishes collected after you fed more than 5,000 people, we had over-abundance. We put bags and bags of them into our storage container to be sorted to go into boxes yet to be packed. Abundance...beyond my asking.
We did six Jericho marches in the days leading up to the packing party. You heard us as groups of us walked around the church praying for wisdom, praying for people's hearts on this side of the box to be opened, praying for unity. And on Saturday morning we did a final Jericho march. We asked for your blessing. We asked You to do what only You could do. Over and over and over we asked. And, oh, Father...how You answered! Yes, there were some moments of strain in our team, but for the most part there truly was sweet unity. At the end of it all we were still laughing and taking silly pictures with kitty tiaras on our heads--making memories that were beyond what we asked.
I kept wondering if I should have ordered more boxes. I ordered 27,500 but You sent us 28,032. We prayed on that Jericho march and You made the walls of boxes around the church come down until every one of them was packed and put into one of four trucks that are ready for the next step on their journey--beyond our asking.
We asked you to use Amanda's testimony in the opening of the packing party to draw people to Yourself and we trust in faith that You are answering those prayers. We thank you for the man who wandered into the church on Wednesday night while we were folding boxes. He said he has spiritual questions and Jim was able to spend a good portion of time talking with him. We asked You to do Your work on "this side of the box" and You answered--beyond our asking.
Amazing God--each of these nine packing parties has been filled with gifts from Your hand. But this one--well, of all of them I believe this one was somehow filled with more abundance than ever.
I stand in awe of You, loving Father, and I wish I had words to give You the praise you deserve. I pray you will get that praise from the lips of the children who receive these boxes--precious gifts from You to lead them to Jesus, the Greatest Gift Of All, and I pray this in His name. Amen.
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