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.
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