Praying for What?

So much prayer invested in decisions. I have been praying and have asked my prayer team and even Facebook followers to pray for over two months about getting storage space for a large delivery of shoebox items.

I made contacts and prayed. Then I prayed some more. Maybe I should have made more contacts? I was praying God would move the 'decider' in a local company to respond to my request and allow us to store 20 more pallets of items there.

But after two months of waiting and a number of phone calls there was no response. And I guess as the meme above says "No response is a response."

The stock of the items we wanted to order was getting perilously low so we made the decision last Thursday to place the order and have it shipped to our storage container. Well, it's not technically being shipped until June 13th when I return from my OCC Vision Trip to Tanzania.

I've been reflecting on all that prayer and wondering: is it worth it to keep banging on the door of heaven?  Does God get weary of hearing our 'much speaking'?

As I think about this I need to 'talk truth' to myself and remember God not only invites us to 'cast all our cares on Him' but He commands us to do so. Somehow I have to believe He answers--even when it seems like He doesn't. This time the answer was 'no' but that doesn't mean the asking wasn't valuable. And He made it clear to my eternally indecisive self when it was the right time to place the order and trust Him to find a place to store all of those pallets.

The story's not over yet. By God's grace the items haven't shipped yet so who knows? God will either have a better plan or open another window of opportunity.

Meanwhile, my right-arm team member, Pam, had this to say about this big order (and I share without her permission, but, really, what can she do?) ... Pam writes,

As far as storage - 

we can put them in a house, we can put them with a mouse, 

we can put them in a car, we can put them near or far, 

we can put them in a van, we can put them in with Pam,

we can put them on a plate, we can put them home with Kate, 

we can put them on a duck, we can put them in a truck,

we can put them here or there, we can put them anywhere.

And we WILL put them anywhere.  Only God knows.

Decisions

So many decisions. It seems like every time we make one there's another one popping up to take its place.

The good news is...we have a packing party goal! Our goal is to pack 22,000 well-filled boxes by 4:00 pm on September 14, 2019.

Now we're moving on to decisions about items to purchase--what and how many?  But those decisions are often based on other situations--like cash flow and storage. Right now I'm praying about  making a large order of thousands of items.  I'd like to try to get a better deal on them by reducing the shipping charges. Having them delivered to a place with a loading dock would help in that respect because we wouldn't need a lift gate for the delivery.

A local company allowed us to have 7 pallets of items delivered to them a few months ago. Unfortunately the man from my Life Group who was our contact there has been laid off from his job. I'm trying to make contact with them on my own and not having much luck. Today I worked up the nerve to call them (which took a lot of prayer and eating about 2000 calories before I took the plunge and dialed) only to get an automated directory followed by 20 rings of the phone when I dialed "0" for the operator and, ultimately, an answering machine that instructed me to leave a message.
Needless to say, that decision is still up in the air.

Meanwhile, there are little decisions that meander through the day--what to do about the team member who hasn't signed her ministry description?  what will I do if the two team members who haven't completed their recommitment don't follow through by the Friday deadline? what's my next move in the quest for a new Central Drop-Off?

I like to escape those decisions by completing a mundane task--like sorting stuffed animal donations. But I hit a decision wall there tonight, too.  I got four bags of stuffed animals donated by a sweet woman in her 90s who makes simple stuffed cats and fish for our boxes. But as I looked at them I realized her work is not what it was a few years ago--even a few months ago.  Are they good enough for our shoeboxes? If not, what do I do with them?

I'm so glad I found this verse this morning from Jehoshaphat's prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:12--"We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You."

Father, I can't even decide what it means to keep my eyes on You but I know that's my greatest need. I know You are more than enough for me, for our team, and for every chain of decisions.

I'm deciding now to keep my eyes on You.