Leaving It On The Field

Call me a super slacker.  It's October 25th and this is the first blog I've written this month.  Maybe I've just run out of anything interesting to say.

The weeks roll along, and I can't believe the start of National Collection Week is just a bit over two weeks away.

Meanwhile, I'm praying about our goal of 54,321 boxes here in Northwestern PA and wondering what it means this year to "leave it all on the field."

I'm in the thick of packing boxes with all the miscellaneous items I've been saving through the year that weren't appropriate for our big packing party in September.  When it comes right down to it my passion is shopping for shoeboxes and packing shoeboxes so it's been fun to assemble these special boxes carefully and prayerfully.

I'm still praying and trying to figure out whether this extra-special dress should be marked for a girl in the 5-9 or the 10-14 age range. It's a long size 10. I even polled friends on Facebook and got a divided response.  I'm praying it will bless the girl who receives it.

This box has a Frozen theme and a pretty dress

The other night I finally assembled 40 sewing kits but was blessed with more supplies today and need to get busy making more.

And just when my filler supply was low I got another donation today. It's fun to figure out how to combine things.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking ahead to our 2018 packing party and unexpectedly received the first shipment this week.

It was a beautiful day to unload 12,000 cardboard Hello Kitty tiaras.  What could be more fun? 

But...there's still plenty of work to bring in the harvest of 2017 boxes.  There are two new drop-off sites to be trained, cartons to distribute, and I'm speaking at two churches this Sunday.  And, of course, there's the Chick-fil-A collection, too.  Oh, and the project leader for my church stepped down so I've been trying to kind of pinch hit in that role...

And the question remains: what does it mean to leave it all on the field for 2017?  I'm trying to get all the miscellaneous stuff packed into boxes (I'm up to 315 packed boxes sitting in my house right now) in the next few days, because we have baby showers for my daughter the next two weekends and I really need to free up some space.

After November 4th I need to decide whether to pack more boxes.  Our area team goal is a little more than a 4,000 box increase over 2016.  Right now--between the packing party and boxes packed at home we stand at just about 600 more than last year. Is that enough, Lord?  

I think we have enough items left over from the packing party to pack another few hundred good boxes.  Is that what God wants me to spend time doing?  Packing boxes is what I love to do, but is it what I should do?  

So...I guess I'll ponder that question for a week or so while I take care of what's in front of me now, because the time is short and I really do want to leave it all on the field.