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.
