Mercy not Justice

Mercy vs. justice. Sadly, I admit most of the time I want mercy for myself and my failures while at the same time seeing the mistakes of others with an eye for only justice.

I've been thinking about that a lot over the last two days as I've been praying for mercy. A couple of weeks ago I found out we had out-of-town company arriving the day of the packing party so I decided we needed to replace the mattress in our spare bedroom.

Always looking for the best deal I bought one online through sears.com where I found a deal that offered $150 in Shop Your Way points with a $300 purchase. I chose the mattress and added a few items to make sure my purchase came to $300.  I was to receive the points in 10 installments of $15 each week, and I planned to use those points to purchase the ball pit balls pictured here. We used them in our 2-4 year old Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes at our packing party and even used some as extra fillers for older children when those checking the boxes at the end of the line found empty corners. 

I received my first $15 installment two weeks ago and then...nothing. I did some checking online and found I had only been awarded an offer of $15 for making a $100 purchase instead of the $150 for a $300 purchase.  Confused, I scrutinized the order and saw that when I made the final purchase I used $4 in existing points I had and that took my total just below $300 before tax was added. I decided to call Shop Your Way anyway and see what they said.

And I prayed. I told God I deserved justice. I'd made a mistake. But I asked Him if maybe I could have mercy.

Between yesterday and today I talked with seven different customer service representatives at both Sears and Shop Your Way. The convoluted conversations and run-around I had are too long to detail here, but I see now how God was using all those delays to get me to just the right person.

Today I talked with someone who finally took responsibility to look at my order (while I waited on hold) and then declared, "Yes, I see the problem. You used your points and that made your total fall below the $300." Yes, I did that. Justice meant I wasn't entitled to that $150 in points. That's what I deserved.

BUT then he said, "But don't worry. I will give you the points. I will add them to your account now." MERCY!  I deserved justice but I was blessed with mercy and $135 in points to spend.

I called my sidekick Pam and we strategized the best way to use this mountain of mercy.  I placed the order and now have 1200 ball pit balls coming our way for future shoebox packing. 

I'm so incredibly happy with this paltry little piece of mercy, and that makes me think of the incomprehensible mercy Jesus won for me with His death on the cross and the mountains of mercy poured out on me day after day by God's loving hand. 

Couldn't I give JUST a tiny bit more of that mercy to others as I go through my day? 

Fighting the Good Fight

It's funny how expectations can frame your experience. Because our packing party goal for this 11th year dropped down to 22,000 from last year's 30,590 I honestly thought this year would be a breeze. I anticipated a nice slow day and was even blessed to be able to have a full-circle speaker, Mariya Snizhko, come to share her story. I even anticipated we'd finish packing boxes early and be cleaned up and ready to leave before 4:00.

But I was wrong...

I should have known it could be more difficult than I thought when the Christian Life Academy students on Friday morning packed only half the number of boxes they packed other years.

I should have known it could be harder than I anticipated when our total at the end of Friday night was....

instead of the 10,400 we'd packed at the end of Friday night last year.  I knew we were packing more slowly (something that was actually one of our goals) but I didn't realize just how slowly.

I have to say I slept better this week than I have during any other packing party week I can remember. On the whole our team was amazing and worked so, so hard.

We ended Friday night with a whopping storm but Saturday morning dawned with clear blue skies. Our final Jericho prayer march around the building at 8:20 that morning was sweet--the easiest part of the day!

When we began our opening in the worship center there were only about 25 people. I prayed early that morning about whether we should have Mariya speak at the 9:00 opening so we didn't have to stop the line at 11:30 as we planned but the decision to wait was made easy when I saw how few people were there. In the opening I talked about Austin Drakulic's life and explained we were dedicating this packing party to his memory. I explained Austin's relationship with the Lord and challenged those who were there to have that saving relationship with Jesus too.

The packing began at 9:20 and by 10:00 we were only at...

When we stopped the line at 11:25 to usher everyone into the worship center to here Mariya speak we'd only packed...

and, truthfully, I was a bit alarmed.  I started praying earnestly for God to somehow bring us across the finish line that day. Mariya did an excellent job of sharing her story and how important that simple shoebox was in her life. At the end of her talk I prayed for her and for us and told God something like this, "You are the One who called us to this. We're trusting You to finish it."

After a short pep talk we started the line moving again. Someone asked me, "What will you do with all these boxes if you don't get them filled?" Good question! And I had no answers.

The lines kept moving around and around. By God's grace we had more volunteers than I ever remember having in the afternoon: many more than in the morning for sure. And I'm sure that's the result of God answering the many prayers of friends.

By 2:30 we were only 1.5 hours away from the official end of the packing party and our total stood at

It was hopeful but still SO FAR AWAY from 22,000. I wondered if it was a lack of faith or wisdom in planning that had my mind spinning with thoughts of what to do with 6,000 assembled but unfilled empty shoeboxes.

At 3:00 with one hour to go our total stood at

Amazingly, we the packing picked up speed in the afternoon. I think once we got to the bags of smaller beanie baby-sized stuffed animals it didn't take so much rearranging to fit things in the boxes. Plus, we still had a good crew of volunteers and that really blew me away. God's goodness was just so evident even as the idea of reaching the goal looked bleak.

When 4:00 came--the scheduled end of our packing party--our total stood at roughly 19,000 boxes. I yelled for the packers to stop for a moment and gave them the news...if we could keep packing for an hour just maybe we could bless another 3,000 children and make our goal. The crowd yelled their desire to "keep packing" and so we did.

My prediction that we could finish in an hour didn't materialize, though. At 5:35, over 1.5 hours AFTER the packing was supposed to be finished our total was at 

and it seemed we would still fall short. I can't praise those hardy volunteers enough, though. It was tempting to just quit at this point, even though the halls were still filled with boxes. But those shoebox packers wouldn't give in!!!  Some of us started cleaning up around them but they just KEPT PACKING!  At one point we ran out of stuffed animals and thought we'd have to stop but then I remembered a few bags of donated ones that were in my car. So volunteers quickly examined them and found they were good to use and KEPT PACKING!

FINALLY, at 6:15--over 2 hours after the scheduled end time--we realized we didn't have enough items to pack good boxes and knew it was time to stop. There were still a hundred or more folded boxes in the hallway and I had no idea if we'd met our goal.

I walked out to the truck and got the total number of cartons on that last one. Thankfully, the last boxes we packed filled a carton. There were 328 cartons on that 4th truck and 350 in each of the first three.

As that group of intrepid, steadfast, never-give-up packers looked on I used my phone's calculator to get the total number packed. I was amazed to see this number come up as our final total...

Yes! Thank YOU, God! At 11:30 that morning I didn't think it could happen. At 2:00 that afternoon I didn't think it could happen. Even at 5:35 that afternoon I didn't think it could happen. BUT GOD...

We asked people this year to do three things:

1) Pack neatly to show love
2) Pack the boxes full but don't OVERfill
3) Pray over your boxes

I think they listened! And I think we realized doing those three things takes more time. We're praying our goal of 22,000 well-filled boxes was met and, if so, it's because GOD showed up for us.

Our team motto this year was Numbers 11:23 "Is the Lord's arm too short?" and the answer to that rhetorical question is a resounding NO!  Thank You, Lord, for packing these boxes with Your mighty right hand.

I just heard from Patti who was in charge of registration and the donation can that $307.43 was donated toward the cost of shipping these boxes. We've received about $8,700 so far and will keep praying for God to meet that need. Patti said one little girl told her, "I don't have much" but she did give everything she had. We're praying for more willing givers.

We think back to Austin Drakulic who came to every packing party work day, even while going through chemotherapy, and worked tirelessly to make jump ropes and school packs. Austin fought the good fight and we think he would have been proud of all the shoebox packers yesterday who fought the good fight in his memory.

Friday Fling

Whew! It's after midnight and I'm only half way through checking and sorting some of the stuffed animals that were donated today. A bunch more are still in my car as I listen to the storm raging outside and I likely won't get to them until after the packing party.

Today flew by in a kind of blur. This morning I tried to put the new sheets I'd just washed on the bed as I get ready for out-of-town company to arrive on Saturday only to find the full size sheet set had a twin size fitted sheet in the package (thanks, Kohl's.)  Quickly ordered online for in-store pickup.

This morning we hosted Christian Life Academy students to kick off the shoebox packing. I think this is the 7th year they've made the 1.5 hour trip each way to pack boxes with us. We encouraged the students to slow down and pray as they packed, and they did a great job ending the day with 1,963 boxes packed.

Packing more intentionally and having more items available is, however, slowing down the process. Last year the students packed twice as many boxes in the same amount of time.  Here's the thing: I want it ALL. I want nice, full boxes packed intentionally with thought and prayer...but I also want a LOT of them and I want them FAST. Yeah...I've always had a problem with realism.

In the afternoon we all regrouped a bit. I went home to do more cleaning and when I returned the building looked great. My team may be small but they know how to work!

A group from Allentown arrived around 4:00 and I enjoyed spending some time talking with them. Then we shared a "last supper" together before doing our Jericho prayer march.  Before long the guests for our packing party started arriving and we had a small opening/instruction time in the lobby before commencing the packing.

There was a good, orderly flow to the line. Boxes were certainly well-filled and many were difficult to close and needed to be rearranged--another thing that slowed us down.

We stopped the line at 7:30 to go into the worship center to hear from our full-circle speaker, Mariya Snizchko. What a joy to be reminded how God can use something as simple as a box of crayons to bring an amazing blessing. This is the first time our area has had a full-circle speaker since 2011 and she was worth the wait.

We filled the first truck (5,600 boxes) a bit before 8:30pm and by the time we ended at 9:00 were were at 5,936.  I've been praying this evening as I sort animals and asking God (to borrow a line from "Facing the Giants") to help me "praise Him if we win and praise Him if we lose," because I'm just not sure how we'll get 16,000 more boxes packed tomorrow.

BUT "we walk by faith and not by sight" so I don't have to see how it will happen. I just have to trust it will. Box by full, prayed-over box we'll keep blessing children one by one.

Thursday Throttle

It was full throttle ahead this Thursday as busy workers arrived early to continue folding boxes. This task was finished in record time as the last boxes were folded at 11:30 am simultaneously by Kelly and the team of Rose and Kathy.  The question is: how many boxes do we really have folded? I ordered 22,400 but I THINK we received 22,200.  We were supposed to have 22,500 labels if there were really 500 on each roll, but I counted 398 labels left over when all the boxes were labeled. So...it's still a mystery until Saturday afternoon.

In retrospect, all the volunteers probably should have just gone home after lunch while we regrouped and decided on a game plan for further packing. Instead we ended up having this impromptu mini packing party without being really prepared for it. But boxes did get packed and I guess that's the point after all. 

And there were a few minutes of fun in the middle.

Two of the trucks arrived in the late afternoon and we discovered our truck driver's wife was a shoebox recipient as a child in the Philippines.  How fun!  The other two trucks will be on site tomorrow.

Tomorrow is another day and I guess we're ready. Sort of. But ready or not we're full steam ahead again in less than 12 hours. 

Wednesday Wondering

I'm wondering...is it really only Wednesday? The packing party prep is moving forward faster than ever. Today we got two more truck deliveries of items stored off-site. First the pod containing stuffed animals that were stored in Kit's living room all year arrived.  We're talking a couple hundred bags of stuffed animals.

We wanted to get the pod emptied ASAP and get the truck driver back on his way so a brigade of volunteers quickly hauled all the bags and lined them up along the walkway to the church. Then, once the pod was empty we carried them all inside and placed them in the appropriate areas. Whew! Big job done.

In the afternoon the semi with seven pallets of water bottles and safety sunglasses arrived. I said out loud, "Who ordered so MANY of these things?" I think we have way too many water bottles for this year's boxes so we stored 2/3 of them in our storage container. It was hot, the boxes were heavier than I anticipated, and I was really glad to see that last pallet unloaded.

The volunteer pool was smaller in the morning except for the hour when we had 18 students from a local high school join us for part of their 9/11 Service Day. During that time I had a great time talking with a young student who was sitting by herself and told me she's new in her school. She wants to come back on the weekend and I pray she can do that.

In the evening things really picked up and we filled not only the gym and youth rooms but another classroom with box folding volunteers and by the end of the day we had nearly 20,000 boxes folded.  They are two rows deep in the halls and 3 rows deep in the youth room and classroom. Crazy!

In the evening we did our daily Jericho prayer march around the building and it was sweet to have so many youth with us.

I'm glad we don't need to wonder if God hears our prayers and we can't wait to see how He's going to answer them in the days ahead.

Tuesday Times

This was another packed-full day. It started in the attic at 6:45--hauling bags of stuffed animals out and pitching them down the attic stairs to Jim who carried them to the driveway.  By 8:00 Myron arrived with the truck to transport them to Grace.

Meanwhile I headed to Target hoping their notebooks would be 90% off...only to find all their school supplies had just been pulled for salvage. So mad at myself for missing that opportunity to get more nice fillers.  Booked back over to Grace where we started the box folding once again. We're all getting faster at the process.

We had an average of 15 volunteers at any point in the day and finished by 9:00 tonight with a total of just over 8,500 boxes folded.

We also spent some time trying to figure out how to get 16 boxes in each carton. The schematic OCC sent with the packing party information calls for putting four on the top of the box in the above configuration BUT it doesn't work with the new boxes--not even close.

Finally Amanda figured out another configuration that works. I think we'll put the row of 3 upside down and the single one rightsize up. It's going to be interesting to see how this works out in the stress of the packing party. 

We all enjoyed the fellowship of sharing lunch and dinner together and my favorite parts of the day came from great conversations I had in the morning and in the evening with two friends each of whom lost both parents in the past year. Talking about God's goodness in the midst of suffering was so meaningful.  

There's more going on than just folding boxes and it's really kind of beautiful. 

Monday Moves

Here we go again! It's packing party week! Here's the truck with our 27 pallets of cartons and flat boxes, and it's hard to believe in just a week, Lord willing, they'll be pulling the four trucks of packed boxes on their way to Charlotte.

The truck arrived bright and early this morning but there was a snag when we found several pallets had been turned upside down when loaded by the shipper. This meant we couldn't get a pallet jack under them and THAT meant we had to hand offload several pallets of cartons of boxes. It took nearly 2.5 hours to complete the job of pulling all 27 pallets into place but our stalwart workers did it!

Here's the cartons sitting out waiting for us to empty a pallet so we could re-palletize them to move them with the pallet jack. It's an old saying for our shoebox team but still true..."Who has more fun than we do?"

After the unloading we tried to make sure we had everything we ordered. I think we came up two cartons of boxes (200 boxes) short. Maybe God didn't want us to fill those? And we're hoping we have all the cartons we need because some of them are ones that have been used before and aren't in bundles. God knows that, too. 

Meanwhile, there was lots of moving going on today. Jim and Myron took the truck to Pam's and loaded the 400 boxes of school packs she packed in her home and got them back to the church. Then they got the many boxes of stuff that Joe and Karen were storing in their home. 

AND the box folding got underway at about 1:00 pm and we folded until 4:30.

Here's the hallway of the church before we started placing boxes there. You won't see it look this way again for another 5 days! We got 864 boxes folded in just 3.5 hours today with 10 volunteers. I was pretty excited about that.

Then we headed out to Kit's house where the bulk of the stuffed animals have been stored in her front living room all year. Our crew transferred them from her house to a donated pod in her driveway that will be transported to the church on Wednesday.

And somewhere in there Ellen went to Walmart, found pencils on sale, and bought almost 10,000 for our 2020 boxes. Gotta shop those sales!

Tomorrow Myron will have the truck here at 8:00 am to get the stuffed animals out of our attic and spare bedrooms, then at 11:00 the guys will go to another warehouse site that donated space to us to pick up water bottles.

We're actually ahead of last year! Praising God for all these Monday moves.