Roadside Boxes (and blankets)

I needed a box. A big one!

Yesterday I mentioned this to the LORD in pondering the blanket drive we were starting again this year at Living Waters Worship Center to help supply area shelters. We had done this the previous year and I believe we ended up with around 78 or more brand new blankets to share among 4 shelters.

In my mind this past Christmas season we already had a number of projects going on to help people in need, so I had decided to not have a "Bring A Blanket" drive. Then someone sorking with a shelter, approached me asking if we would be donating blankets this year. And then another someone and then I was at a Veterans home where a need for blankets for another place was shared....

Well ok then LORD...maybe you do want this happening. Still in all I did not want to burden the congregation and did not even have the ability to help supply them yet either...Then a blanket was given to me in case we were giving blankets to a womens shelter...and then I was approached again..Maybe I just needed my spiritual ears cleaned out! And then I was told 20 hats had just been knit and donated for us to give to the mens shelter. They are now on my desk awaiting their new owners.

So it was announced Sunday that for the next two weeks we would be collecting NewTwin Size Blankets again to deliver to the area shelters. Next, I needed to get a LARGE box to collect them in for this Sunday coming up. And so the pondering...Where am I going to get a box that size LORD? I am picturing stopping at a couple different places to check availability. I really am just not energetic right now..it's winter (yes I know it has been mild so far), my youngest son just moved (glad for him yet still sad you know), my dad has been in the hospital 3 times in 2 weeks, Christmas stuff still not completely down and still some gifts I have not even  mailed to my grandkids yet (what a weighty and embarrassing confession that is!), my washer is still broken. Yes. Well in all that, I am still more than a conqueror as Apostle Paul would say...persecuted not abandoned...pressed down but not destroyed...nothing separating me from Gods love...
And I am NOT in a homeless shelter or even close! So coming home from prayer meeting last night lo and behold on the side of Highway 149 is a huge ....go on, you guess...no, not a tiger... not an animal at all, but a box! My eyes opened wide...

As we continued on our way passing it by, I casually said to Marty,
"I need that box".
"Why do you need that box? You don't know what it was used for or if it is even empty and since it is late, I do not want to go check it out".
"OK. But I want you to know that box is an answer to prayer".  At least I was pretty sure it was. So I explained myself, we pulled into the driveway, and went inside the house. I got busy and forgot about the box actually.
This morning after taking Lily to school and Adrena to daycare he came in and said,
"The box is still there and it flapped open as I drove past. It's empty. We can go get it if you still want it."

So my partner in some of my ministry endeavors (although sometimes it is the other way around and I am a partner in his) took me back, broke down the very large box, put in in the back of his already loaded with someotherthingsfromme jeep, and took us home before he headed off to work at the office. (Thanks Honey!)

If I needed more signs from God that He has need of blankets for some of His people, this one, providing the box, really clinched it...even so He allowed me to talk at length today with a woman (a friend I had not seen in years) who works with one of the shelters...and so for now this is what we are doing and if you live nearby and want to help over the next couple weeks..Please bring a blanket.  Must be new and twin size. Thanks!!! You may drop them off at our church Sunday mornings 88 E US Highway 6 in Valparaiso or even at one of our offices Angel Auto Insurance (RT 6 Hobart or Willowcreek Rd Portage)