2020 Peculiar Pandemic Packing...All This Abundance...

 

"All this abundance that we have provided for building...comes from your hand and is all your own." 1 Chronicles 29:16

I'm not sure 2020 will be known in most circles as a year of abundance but it certainly has been that for our Operation Christmas Child team here in Northwestern PA.

By God's grace He provided almost all the items we needed to pack 22,000 boxes before the pandemic hit. Had it not been for that it might have been easy to say we'd skip our large shoebox packing party for 2020--our 12th year. But with God's provision so evident we KNEW (and kept reminding one another) that He wanted these boxes to be packed.

It was that assurance that kept us going despite roadblocks along the way. We lost our storage space and had to move most of our items with just a few weeks' notice. On the day we met with the church pastor to confirm plans for our September packing party the governor of PA limited indoor gatherings to no more than 25 people. We knew then we'd have to shift gears to make this packing party happen.

But God went before us to open new doors and happen it did! Granted, we could only have fewer than 25 people practicing social distancing to pack. Only 5-10 people packed at a time at individual stations while others folded boxes, stocked items, or dealt with the mountains of cardboard. 

We packed one truck in August with a total of 5499 boxes in 3 days and today we finished filling 3 more trucks with another 17,198 boxes and it only took us 5 days this time!

As I look back over my journal at prayer requests through these past months I see how God answered us so clearly step by step. We prayed about items to purchase last October and November and God gave us direction. We prayed about a source for balls and whether to even purchase them and God answered (we bought all the wholesaler had so don't even ask me where we got them--lol.)

We prayed over deliveries and trucks and volunteers and God provided in every way at just the right times. 

We hated not being able to involve the whole community this year but we still prayed to make an impact in the lives of people on "this side of the box." And wouldn't you know it--on one night of packing a sweet woman wandered in looking for Celebrate Recovery. It's no longer held at the church but God provided another volunteer there who was packing (the only few hours she was there this week) who was able to offer support to this woman as they packed boxes and promised to take her to a meeting. I'm telling you--pandemic or not--God is ALWAYS up to something! 

Packing was easier and quicker than we imagined possible with so few people. And today, before noon, Donna folded the LAST box. 

After all these months, we filled the last box that was sent. I even found one extra at home from 2 years ago and we filled that one, too.

Since we cleaned each day as we went it was a breeze to get everything stored back in our container. We even had the time and energy for the core packing party team to debrief a bit and celebrate. Something that usually has to wait for a few weeks until we recover.

With this our 12th year of packing parties we just crossed the quarter million mark. This makes a total of 256,126 gospel opportunities packed in a dozen years. 

Our theme verse for this 2020 Peculiar Pandemic Packing Party was from Nehemiah 2:18 "Rise up and build!" It's no coincidence I'm sure that my morning Bible reading was in 1 Chronicles 29--David's prayer as he prepared for his son to build a temple to the Lord. Verse 16 reads "O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own." 

I was able to read that with my team today as we thanked God for His provision for every step and for every box. Great is His faithfulness! 

Not Feasible

 

I am so glad we don't serve a God of the feasible.

On Friday and Saturday we had our packing party core team doing setup for this week's packing of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. By God's grace we were able to complete setup in record time so we began packing boxes. Praise God we have 2,040 in the truck already!

In the midst of the day of packing I had a little conversation with a young man who is experiencing our packing for the first time. He's a family friend of one of our team members and drove 5.5 hours to come work with us. He asked me what our goal was for the number of shoeboxes to pack this week and when I told him it's 17,000 he answered, "That's not feasible!"

His words have been rolling around in my head so I looked up the definition of the word 'feasible' and it's "possible to do easily or conveniently."

Well, by that definition pretty much anything in our Operation Christmas Child world is not feasible because not much of it is easy or convenient.

This morning I'm thinking how glad I am we don't serve a God of the feasible. 

Is it feasible that God would provide almost all the items we needed to pack 22,000 boxes before the pandemic hit? 

Is it feasible that one casual contact by a team member would result in a donor going online to search out Operation Christmas Child and make contact with our regional office so he could donate a truckload of fillers? 

Is it feasible that a man I barely know would drive across the state with a truck full of clothing items to donate?

Is it feasible that one team member could singlehandedly find and purchase more than 13,000 Beanie Babies this year?

Is it feasible that one team member also could put together 22,000 plus school packs in her home?

Is it feasible that another team member completed 6000 jump ropes and sorted and stored countless bins of clothing?

Is it feasible that one team member secured and financed the storage of two truckloads full of items? 

Is it feasible that a small team of 18 members (only 10 or so able to be active year-round and most of them over the age of 60) would be able to orchestrate the packing of 22,000 shoeboxes in 6 days in one small area with only 20 people at a time in the midst of a global pandemic?

The answer is a resounding "NO". This young man saw the truth. None of this is feasible.

BUT our God is not a God of the feasible. Our God is a God of the impossible. And we stand on tiptoe to see Him do it again. 

ps--this cute bear is our mascot for this 2020 Pandemic Packing Party and he is reminding us to "Rise up and build!"

The Little Things

 

Sometimes we feel prayer should be reserved for really crucial things like world peace. But God tells us over and over again in His word to pray about everything and to "cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)

Honestly, most of my prayers are for pretty small specific things--things that may seem trivial--like a better price on balls for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes or for good weather and timing for deliveries or for just the right volunteers to come at just the right times to get our boxes packed.

For the last eight months or so this little miracle is one of the little things I've been praying for. I'm not sure I agree with the term 'pregnancy loss' because I know none of these little ones who go to heaven without drawing a breath on earth are lost in terms of eternity. They are experiencing life forever, yet their earthly parents are left with the loss of the joy of knowing them here. And so, by this definition, my daughter has experienced more loss over the past several years. Not one to dwell on her sorrow, though, she moved on beyond the miscarriages and we rejoiced last Christmas when she shared the joyous news that God had blessed them with yet another pregnancy.

The prayers moved from the generalized prayer for the blessing of a healthy baby to more specific prayers as the pregnancy advanced. Our daughter and son-in-law did not want to learn the gender of their baby before the birth. And though the health of this baby was her primary concern there were other wishes she had for this labor and delivery. She wanted less medical intervention if possible and a chance to move around more during labor. She chose a midwife as her health provider.

As her due date of August 11 came and went in this hot summer she kept her eyes on the goal. Rather than having her labor induced she chose to wait beyond week 40. And then beyond week 41. It was decided her labor would be induced on August 23rd if she did not begin labor before then.

Meanwhile we kept praying. I was praying specifically that this labor and delivery would be a memorial stone in her family's walk of fatih--a time when they would see God's goodness in new ways. 

Though I kept praying her contractions would begin, for some reason I felt sure her labor would not begin until the 23rd. And, truthfully, I felt a bit guilty for that. Did it mean I lacked faith God would work? 

On Saturday we traveled to our daughter's home to stay with our two-year-old grandson, Sam. Early Sunday morning we prayed together before Jen and Jeremy left for the hospital. In this COVID world we knew we wouldn't see them until they brought their baby home.

News was sparse through the day but we kept praying as the hours wore on. I got several messages and one said she was able to have intermittent monitoring for only 15 minutes per hour so she could move around. A definite answer to a specific prayer. 

Finally, at 10:30 that night Jen called to say her baby was safely here. A girl. Our first granddaughter. And they named her Mabel Irene after her great-grandmothers. I was excited to hear how God answered another specific little prayer. After rupturing her membranes in the morning, Jen's labor progressed naturally with no medication needed. 

Now I'll continue my daily specific prayers for this sweet miracle baby and for my three other grandchildren--that each will know how much God loves him or her and respond to that love by surrendering themselves to a lifelong relationship with Him. 

No prayer could be more crucial. 

Day 3--They're Off, You see!

 

Day 3--and by God's grace we were done at 10:30 am! After cleanup we prayed around the truck for the children who will receive these boxes.

Packing so many boxes with a group of only 15 or fewer people at individual tables is something we never would have considered doing if it were not for COVID. And I had no idea how it would work. But our team actually loved it. In general there was less stress and it was more efficient in terms of time than our usual assembly packing party.

I figured each person packed about 250 boxes in a seven hour day and I'm pretty sure that's way more than the average person packed in a day by walking a large circuit around the inside of the church.  And we know these boxes were well-packed, also. That's a relief for sure.

At the same time, we realize we are losing the sense of community and the chance to interact with so many people at our large packing party. We mourn that loss, but we're grateful God provided this way for us to continue to bless children around the world. 

Each person packed at a socially distanced station and packed only 6-8 boxes at a time with their supplies on the other side of the table so they didn't have to move much. This helped with efficiency.

We had a list on each station so the packers knew what to put into each of these pre-planned boxes. While this was going on, we had three team members combining miscellaneous items for boxes for boys and girls ages 2-4. These trusted team members had a good grasp of all that was available and could hand pick the items that worked best together to make the best use of resources. 

Another reason things worked so well is that team members were self-directed. Those who were not at packing stations quickly noticed tasked that needed to be done to make things run more efficiently. Ed, who I dubbed "the sock guy" quickly started opening the plastic bags containing two pairs of socks so the individual pairs would be ready for packing. This was something we couldn't do in advance because many items were 'buried' in storage and unaccessible. 

Other team members took on tasks like breaking down boxes or stocking tables with supplies. In our debrief at the end of this session we discussed ways to make those tasks official jobs for volunteers in September. 

Sadly, we could have put 6 more cartons on the truck. My math was wrong when I ordered boxes. For some reason I thought 5400 would fill the 350 cartons on the truck but it actually takes 5600 to fill 350 cartons with 16 boxes each. They sent me 5500 boxes, thankfully, but since one carton only had 49 boxes our total when every single box was packed was 5499.  And how did we know one carton only had 49 boxes you ask? Only ONE carton of boxes had the boxes counted. Just ONE--because a team member took them home, folded them, and arranged them in rows of 5 and came out with an odd stack of 4 at the end. And we were missing only ONE box. 

I wish I'd ordered more boxes...and if I'd known how fast it would go we could have ordered even MORE boxes and a second truck. 

Still...the truck was just pulled and there are now 5499 gospel opportunities on the way to Charlotte. And...we'll be back to pack more in a few weeks so stay tuned. 

Pressing On in Day 2

 

Pressing on to Day 2 of our 2020 packing. Yes, we had to compress the cardboard in the dumpster, and we were pressing on in other ways also.

The truck was moved first thing this morning. That was a relief! 

Once again we had 13-15 people working at any time throughout the day. There were usually 4-5 people folding boxes while 7-9 packed boxes. Since we want to pack another three trucks full of boxes in September and/or October we're trying to figure out if there's any way we can have more people working at any one time. We'd need more space to stay socially distanced and then we'd need at least 1 or 2 more people carbonizing boxes and stacking them in the truck. Maybe it's simpler to just stick with this number and pack over the space of more days? So many questions!

Several families who are used to coming to pack together are disappointed this has been an 'adults only' affair this year. It's another COVID casualty. 

We ended the day with 4,024 boxes on the truck. There are 810 packed boxes at my house waiting for transport to the truck. That means we have fewer than 700 boxes to pack tomorrow to get the truck filled.  

We'll keep pressing on! 

Packing At A Distance

 

2020--a year of forced change. So many things are different and our 12th annual Operation Christmas Child packing party is no exception. We had to cancel our large community-wide event in September since our governor declared we could have no indoor gatherings of more than 25 people.  But, because God blessed us with nearly all our items in advance of the pandemic we believe He wants us to get these boxes packed.

So we are in our first week of packing with the goal of filling our first truck this week. I made an error in calculations when I ordered our boxes. I thought 5400 boxes would fill a truck but it turns out a full truck of 350 cartons will accommodate 5600 boxes. We actually received 110 cartons of boxes which should give us 5500 total--we'll see how that works out.

We planned as well as we could and invited just a short list of people to come and pack. Today we had 15 at the most. We have 9 individual tables as stations for people to pack boxes and then have a few people folding boxes (socially distanced) in one corner and a cartonizing area in the opposite corner

My goal was to pack 1200 boxes per day but today, by God's grace, we completed over 1700. If we continue at this rate we could be done by Wednesday. We'll see.

The big glitch today came with the placement of the truck. We were there waiting for the truck but were in the gym at the back of the church. Apparently the driver came to the front office and they just had him place the truck in the front parking lot where we'd normally place it for our large packing party. The problem is we are working only out of the gym and need to take the cartons out the side door--quite a distance from where the truck is parked in the front. The guys improvised today by loading the cartons in a pick-up truck and driving it to the truck in the front. Not very efficient--especially on a day when the temperature reached 89 degrees.

We're praying the truck will get moved tomorrow so loading the cartons will be easier.   Meanwhile I'm praising God for so many answers to prayer...

Even at a distance. 

This I Know

This picture is from one of our earliest packing parties--2009 or 2010. Life was different then in many ways. 2020 is not the same as 2010. This I know.

But God is the same in 2020 as He was in 2010. The God who provided miraculously for us then can do the same for us now. This I know.

In 2010 a whole community of hundreds of people came together to pack 12,670 boxes resulting in many blessings. In 2020 a whole community of hundreds of people cannot come together to pack our goal of 22,000 Operation Christmas Child boxes. This I know.

Our gracious God provided almost all the items we need to pack 22,000 shoeboxes before this pandemic hit. It was an 'unprecedented' (can I say I have grown to hate that word) gift from a God who loves children around the world and wants them to know He loves them. This I know.

I need to concentrate on what I know because there is so much I don't know right now. We have been praying for months about how to get these boxes packed this year. A few months ago we thought we had a contingency plan that would allow us to pack one truck of boxes in August, two trucks in September, and one in October--but we couldn't get permission to use the church facility for extra days.

Yesterday Pam and Patti from our team met with Pastor Scott to get guidelines for how our packing party could be executed this year, based on our county staying in the "green zone" which would allow a group of 250 socially distanced persons in the building with masks, gloves, and frequent sanitizing.

Not more than two hours after that meeting Governor Wolf announced the following:

Events and gatherings must adhere to these gathering limitations:

• Indoor events and gatherings of more than 25 persons are prohibited.

So...we are back to working out a plan that involves no more than 25 people packing boxes at one time. We need to revisit the possibility of using just our team and a very few others to pack these boxes over several different weeks.

How will this work? I don't know.

We are going to pray about it and ask you to join us and we are going to expect God to answer in ways we can't begin to imagine.

Because our omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God is not surprised by any of this. He has a plan and will lead us step by step. Or, in my case, may be dragging me by the scruff of my neck as I, his stupid sheep, prefer to sit baaaaaing in the mud. Despite everything He loves me. And this I know.

Our Eyes Are On You

Yes--I have been out of the blogging world for a season. No--we have not canceled our Operation Christmas Child packing party for 2020.

Despite COVID-19 and the disappearance of normal life God has continued to bless us with amazing donations of items. When I last wrote on March 18th we'd just received a huge donation of filler items.

Then, just a week and a half later, we welcomed this 15' long vehicle full of donations from a fellow Operation Christmas Child shoebox packer in the Allentown, PA area. He'd had these bags in his warehouse for many years and never got them sorted. So he decided to bring them to us.

The thing is, we weren't able to assemble as a team during those early weeks of the pandemic. A couple other teams members and I took turns taking home multiple bags--many of them falling apart--and sorting the contents. That sorting took a full three months to complete, and we had to discard a number of items. But in the end we salvaged more than 10,000 usable items that will bless children.

On the 3rd Wednesdays in May and June we held a modified packing party work day. Not the public one we'd normally enjoy but one just for 10 team members with social distancing and masks.

God had us prepared for this before we even knew it was coming. We'd already decided to make only about 6,000 jump ropes this year and one couple on our team--Myron and Patti--completed all of those singlehandedly. Pam had already determined she wanted to pack all the school packs herself in her home so we didn't have that task to complete.

The lack of church rummage sales and garage sales is no problem this year because Ellen has been driving to other states to pick up beanie babies she's been purchasing on Facebook marketplace. We're just a few hundred shy of having enough for 22,000 boxes and it's only June!

In the middle of this the warehouse where the bulk of our items were stored was sold and we were given two months to move all those pallets of treasures. God answered prayer and provided another option for us.

We believe God's blessed us with enough items to pack 22,000 boxes to bless 22,000 children BUT we have no idea how they are going to get packed. How many people will we be able to have at our packing party at one time in September? How can we pack more efficiently or start earlier to accomplish the goal?

We considered doing a modified packing party to pack one truck full in August, then two trucks in September, then one more truck in October but the church where we hold the packing party wasn't able to give us the space for those extra days. 

I thought about approaching other churches to see if we could find somewhere else to pack in August and/or October but several team members did not want to do that.

So...now we wait. Actually, I've been sleeping better than usual and have the peace of knowing there's not really anything I can do right now. We have no way of knowing how to make plans at this point.

But we continue to reassure ourselves that God would not have given us all these unprecedented donations and supplied all our needs in advance of this pandemic if He did not want 22,000 children to be blessed with filled shoeboxes.  We have no plan, but He does. That we know.

We echo the prayer of Jehoshaphat when he faced battle against a huge enemy army, "We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you."

A Corona of Miracles

Webster's second definition of corona is "something suggesting a crown" and the shoebox miracles we've experienced over the past few weeks have been a crown of new life.

Doubts about our team and our packing party are nothing new. As I look back over old journals I see that pattern repeated over and over again as the years go by. It's a constant battle, but over the past few months that battle's taken a new direction that made us go to concentrated prayer.

God has answered recently with several affirmations that are astonishing to me. I've seen God work in amazing ways so many times. I guess I should be used to His goodness, yet I still find it mind-blowing that the God of the UNIVERSE stoops to hear and answer our prayers.

The first miracle came in the form of confirmation about storage--a very pressing issue. Our Central Drop-Off Team Leader, Kit, has been a blessing in so many ways. She has unique connections in our community and she uses them, by God's grace, "for such a time as this." One of her connections is with the owners of a warehouse who are donating space to us for the second year.  At our team meeting two weeks ago Kit told the story of how she and her husband took these owners (one of whom is a prominent Erie realtor and developer) to dinner to thank them for the use of their space. She talked extensively to them about Operation Christmas Child (she's passionate, after all) and told them she understands that if the warehouse is sold we will need to move our pallets of items. Kit reports that prominent developer looked her in the eye and said, "You will always have a place for your stuff." What an amazing God-given assurance.

Then...a couple of weeks ago another team member, Ellen, who's a tenacious pursuer of beanie babies and often takes road trips a few hours away to purchase huge lots, went on a whim to a sale at a local warehouse. There were lots of items there that were suitable for shoeboxes, but the prices were too high so Ellen left empty handed. On her way out the owner asked, "Couldn't you find anything?" and Ellen explained about our Operation Christmas Child packing party and told him we are looking for items that are priced very low. David, the owner, gave her his card and encouraged her to come back at the end of the sale, but he also said he might have other sales in the future. Ellen didn't really think it was worth making the long drive back to his warehouse. She never gave him her contact information and figured it was a dead end.

Imagine our surprise two weeks later when I got an email from our regional office saying that a warehouse owner had contacted them and was looking for someone in Erie from OCC to come pick up a donation. I was in shock, because normally when I talk to someone about Operation Christmas Child they can't even remember the correct name of the organization. This guy managed to do the research and track down the regional office.

Well, I called Ellen and Ellen called Dave (the warehouse owner) and set up a time to meet him a few days later at his warehouse. I made sure Ellen explained to him that we couldn't receipt him. If he wanted a receipt we'd have to refer him back to the regional office so he could donate directly to Operation Christmas Child. Amazingly, Dave wasn't concerned about a receipt. Ellen asked if I thought we should both drive our vans to the warehouse and I said, "Yes, in faith, let's take two vehicles and pray God will fill them.

When we got there Dave took us into the warehouse that was filled with cartons of beautiful filler items. He'd owned a business that supplied items to schools for the students to purchase for their families at Christmas or for other occasions. Remember how we prayed God would fill our two vans? Well, instead, Dave gave us each some sheets of fluorescent green stickers and told us to put a sticker on any cartons we could use!  Our jaws dropped and we set to work putting stickers on cartons of balls and jewelry and so many other neat items.

We made arrangements to come back with a truck this Tuesday to get everything. God allowed us to borrow a truck, provided faithful Myron (husband of a team member) to drive it, and enough volunteers to go to load the items and then go to the church to sort them. And the church was gracious enough to allow us to use their space even though they are closed because of COVID-19.

Our sorting team was small, we sat far away from each other, and we washed our hands often. But these miracles were worth the time it took to sort them. Six hours later we had almost everything sorted and recorded.  In the end we stored over 28,600 beautiful filler items--over 2,300 balls, several thousand pieces of nice boxed jewelry, toy cars, and glider planes.  There are sunglasses and flashlights and slinkies and novelty pens.

And in addition to all those filler items there were thousands of the pencils we've been praying for. We've prayed for 18,000. We still have one more box of pencils left to count but so far we've counted 6,940 of them!

Today we had another work day with a small team and filled 2,500 water bottles with crayons, pens, pencils, toothbrushes, erasers, and sharpeners. We only have 972 more left to fill.

And...speaking of filling...we're filled with praise for our awesome God who knows exactly when we need a crown of miracles and showers us with His favor. And we thank God for you who pray along with us and praise God beside us as they unfold.

Weaning

"Spirit of God descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move." This hymn is stuck in my head these days and I've been thinking a lot about weaning.

I have three little grandsons who have all been weaned in the past few months. Each of them took a different route to that weaning and a different time schedule. Two of them did this pretty much on their own without a lot of fuss. Ah, but the other--he held on for a long time. He did not want to be weaned and it took some special tricks to get the job done.

I fear my heart is in that 'hard to wean' category. I cling so firmly to things of this earth--not so much to possessions but to achievement, to trying to earn my way to heaven (an impossibility, I know) and to my addiction for approval.  I've been praying about that and I think God may be answering my prayers in ways I don't even fully recognize.

Psalm 131:1-2 "O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me."

The notes in my ESV study Bible point out the psalmist is saying that like a weaned child is content to just be in his mother's presence the psalmist is content to just be with God even when there are things he wishes God would explain that he can't understand.

The psalmist says he doesn't occupy himself with what he can't figure out. He just rests in God's presence.

I guess babies and children who are not weaned often have an ulterior motive when snuggling into their mothers' chests. Just being near her mother makes her root around and look for the milk mommy can give her.

Am I like that with God? Am I always just looking for His provision and not His presence? That's a heavy thought but one I don't want to turn away from.

And I'm sensing another weaning that may be happening. One that makes me really uncomfortable because I hate change.  I mean, I've only lived in two houses my entire life--the one I grew up in and the one we've lived in for all of our 45 years of marriage. I've lived in the same community all my life. I've attended only two churches and it took a clear act of God to move me out of the first one after 56 years. And I've been doing this Operation Christmas Child ministry since 1995.

I always thought I would pack shoeboxes until I died. And maybe I will. But what if God has some other plan for me in His kingdom? Am I willing to trust Him and move on if He calls in a different direction?

"Spirit of God descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move."

Burning Question

The burning question for my year has been: How do you discern between God's leading and the enemy's work of discouragement? When God intentionally reduced Gideon's army to only 300 God was merciful enough to give Gideon really clear guidance about that (I mean, AFTER the fleece incident--lol) But when you're constantly praying for guidance and get these zingers and God doesn't write His will on the wall for you, then it's challenging to know where those zingers come from and whether they have meaning.

This picture is from our packing party in 2010. That was our second packing party and we packed 12,600 boxes that year. Samaritan's Purse even sent a crew to film it. There were about 500 volunteers there that day. Lots of help. At that time the packing party got a lot of support from Grace Church and many volunteers came from Grace. It also got a lot of support from OCC. We'd actually had the first packing party in 2009 in response to a direct invitation from OCC so that made sense.

Now, almost 10 years later, things look much different. The packing party is not directly supported by Grace Church. They are gracious to offer us the use of their building, which is a HUGE investment, and they provide us with a storage container next to the church and a dumpster for our use the week of the packing party. I'm so grateful for these, believe me. But there is no direct effort to recruit volunteers from those Grace attendees, and despite doing all we could to recruit from the community we had fewer than 300 volunteers on the Saturday packing day this year.

And, little by little, I've been getting the message that maybe OCC would rather we didn't do this packing party either. This year there have been several reminders that packing parties are not the function of our area teams. And of course there's always the issue we've had of not seeing the $9 shipping donation for each of our boxes. So, if you don't have support from a church or from an OCC area team, then you're left with the option of organizing your packing party with an independent team. And that's fine--I mean, with God, even ONE is a majority. But that's the rub--are we "with God"?

I am constantly praying for God's guidance about whether to continue this large packing party. Year by year this is my prayer and the prayer of my team. Because, believe me, the LAST thing I want to do is attempt something this huge outside of the favor of the Lord.

So now I'm back to the question of guidance. Our storage container and extra warehouse space are full of items God has already provided and the beanie babies are literally raining in. I think it's safe to say God wants us to go ahead with this 2020 packing party. At least that makes sense to me.

But is He trying to tell us something for the future? Sometimes I wish God's guidance came in ways that were easier to discern. I'm pretty sure ending our large packing party will not result in more churches and groups being contacted or more team participation. Maybe I'm wrong about that, though.

Only God knows, and I really wish He would tell me.
PS--When I wrote this I completely forgot about the dream I had last night. I woke this morning from a dream in which we had our packing party in the basement fellowship hall of the church that used to be our central drop-off. I couldn't get an accurate total of the boxes we'd packed because each carton had a different number of boxes and no one had properly recorded the numbers.  I did know we were WAY below our goal and had tons of items left over. I kept trying to find someone to see if we could leave everything out and pack boxes the next day but I couldn't find anyone to ask. When I got back to the fellowship hall they were setting up for a craft fair. I woke up with a sense of doom and failure. And that was just the start of the day.

Hands and Feet

I can't sleep. And I don't have anything Operation Christmas Child shoebox related to write about at the moment.

So let me share a little pet peeve of mine. Oh, believe me, I can be the queen of peeves and they're the only pets I have so sometimes I hang onto them pretty tight.

This one's just a little one but it has to do with what I call Christianese. Sometimes it seems we followers of Christ have our own language. It must seem like a secret code to those who aren't part of the group.

Phrases like "I feel led to share..." or "I'm praying a hedge of protection..." sound just a wee bit strange to the uninitiated. I mean, there's nothing wrong with those phrases. They just sound odd when you try to communicate the meaning.

Anyway, one that bothers me a little is when we're planning to do something good (in Christianese we call it ministry) or have done something good we say we are "the hands and feet of Jesus."

Really? My feeble attempt to help my brother (there's another phrase) makes my hands and/or feet synonymous with those nail-pierced ones of Jesus? I don't think so. Jesus doesn't need my help, of course, but because He loves me and is merciful He invites me to come alongside Him in the good He does in the world.  But I still don't think my availability makes my hands and feet worthy of comparison to His.

So it's one of those phrases that kind of makes me cringe a bit. Nothing like the hurt in my heart when I hear a fellow believer misuse God's name. But that's another story.

And...I'm thinking right now the best use of my hands would be to get them off the computer keys and maybe over my mouth.

Greener Pastures

Well, on this blog I completely missed December and throttled right into not only a new year but a new decade. It seems just a short time ago we were all considering the possible problems of Y2K and now here we are TWENTY years later. That just shows me once again how small a blip our lifetimes really are in view of eternity. I need to make every day count for Him as time speeds on.

Today I'm out of my Operation Christmas Child roles and enjoying grammy time with my twin grandsons while their nanny is out of the country. This morning they are reminding me of the very familiar idea of 'the grass being greener on the other side.'

These little guys keep their mom (full-time ob/gyn doctor) and dad (full-time pharmacist) and all their caregivers pretty busy so since they've become mobile they spend most of their time in what is affectionately termed "baby jail"--a large gated area in their living room to keep them safe. Lately, though, they need more room to practice their walking skills so they are sometimes allowed "out and about" with proper supervision. The chairs you see here are set up to keep them from escaping into the non-baby-proofed areas beyond.

When the gate is opened and they are first freed from "baby jail" they exult and chortle with glee and begin to rush around and around the kitchen island on knees or with their walker. But before long they are looking toward the forbidden area beyond--those "greener pastures" that look so inviting.

I find so often in my Operation Christmas Child life I, too, am quick to turn my back on all God has given me and look toward greener pastures.

Our team is going into 2020 absolutely amazed at all God's provided for us already this year. By His grace we've collected over 8,300 stuffed animals and this is unprecedented for this time of year. He's given us favor with purchasing huge quantities of really high quality items (two truckloads full, at least) and also provided us with warehouse space and a safe delivery.  We are SO blessed!

I marvel at His blessings...and I praise Him for His goodness.  But...THEN I look at the blessings of other teams and other large shoebox packers and begin to see grass that is greener.

I start to envy those who are part of a church that makes Operation Christmas Child a priority mission and prays together and trusts God to provide shipping costs and then SEES God provide and meet their shipping donation. I start to long for the deals some get with amazing price reductions at stores. I start to wonder why my team isn't growing and why I only have one ministry coordinator.

I forget God's blessings to me and long for more and different ones. Silly me!  Like my grandsons I lose sight of the joys I've been given and descend into desire.

Lord, help me keep my eyes on You and trust You to meet every need of our team in Your time. Help me thank you with JOY for all you do for me and for my team day by day. Help me trust You for more while not forgetting Your provision for the prayers of the past.

Because You DO make me lie down in green pastures and they are just right for me.