Working it Out

If there's one thing we've learned it's that it takes a lot of prep work to get ready for a large shoebox packing party.  The earlier you start the better.

Today was our first work day to prepare for the upcoming packing party (hopefully to be held in September--still waiting for confirmation on availability of the site.)

We've been praying about this work day--for volunteers to come, for the weather to be good.  This morning my husband said, "You won't get much done today if only five people come."  True, BUT we've been praying.

In the weather department, the day was filled with steady rain that made for lots of mud as we tried to navigate getting things in and out of the storage container.  But...on a February day when we've had over 13 feet of snow this winter...rain is a good thing.  We put down some cardboard and tried to "walk like a penguin" to keep from sliding away...

God answered our prayers in so many wonderful ways.  There were twenty people who came.  One woman came after reading the announcement in our local paper and had never heard of Operation Christmas Child.  It was great to take some time during a break to share with the group about OCC and pray for the children who will receive the items we worked on today.

We started the day by sorting and counting 16,061 plastic cups--checking to be sure there were no inappropriate logos and tossing out the few that were broken.

When the cup-sorting was complete we moved on to removing the packaging from 12,000 cardboard tiaras and unboxing thousands of pens.

Meanwhile, we started constructing jump ropes and completed over 1,800 of them today.

The four hours went by so quickly I didn't even realize when it was time to quit.  That great group of volunteers stayed for clean-up and it was accomplished in record time.

We've also been praying for storage for stuffed animals, and one of our new volunteers offered some space in her home.  We packed her car with bags of beanie babies and that freed up a lot of space in the storage container.

The next step is to order 180,000 more feet of rope so we can continue making more ropes next month.

As always, God is working it out...