Tales from the Trenches: Giving of the first fruits.

This week at Vacation Bible School, I'm in charge of running the Missions project.  I gave the director a quick overview of past projects that I had done and she and Rev. K chose for me to do a kid-friendly food collection to benefit a local charity. 

The first few nights were a little thin.  The director was very sad, but I told her that things would start to come in.  They started coming in today.  13% of the items donated have expired, including some from 2008.  I know that I've touched on this in regard to the collection that we do at the school each year. 

Cleaning out the cupboards just for numbers kills me.

We're to give from our first fruits.  Particularly in this case, we're collecting for those in need.  If we wouldn't see fit to feed our families expired evaporated milk, soup from 2008, boxes of potatoes and so forth, why would we think that people who are in need would be wanting the cast offs? 

For K-, I went to the store and purchased things that I knew that she loved.  I wanted her to not only give, but to sacrificially give.  I bought her favorite cheesy crackers, fruit snacks that we don't buy but she loves, gold fish, banana chips (which I thought she liked but she doesn't) and macaroni and cheese.  I loved the initial, "Mom!  I love those!"  I loved it because I knew that to her, she was truly donating something that was a love of hers.

For this evening, I'll be going down to my shelf in the basement to find more things to donate tomorrow.  I need to beef up the givin's. 

Yes, I'll check the dates. 

Smiles in my day:
-  My MIL took K- to her very first county fair.  They had a truly lovely time and turns out that K- was a clown in the children's circus.  She played games and won lovely things.  She had a grand time and reports that she was thankful and let grandma know so.
-  K- is having a fantastic time at VBS.
-  The grocery is across the street from the church and I was able to dash in to get a sandwich before the evening began.
-  The church sponsors a uniform swap and I was able to swap 3 uniform pieces for 3 that fit. 
-  I'm getting to know a lot of people from the church is this week.  They kind of seem happy to have me there.  That's always a good thing.  The very beginning started out a hair rough, so I'm glad that it all shook out. 
-  Grandpa's house appears to have sold.  I'm so glad that my dad won't have to go through another never-ending house for sale saga like they did with Poppy's house.  That took 2 1/2 very long years.  I don't think that they even buried a St. Joseph in the front yard. 

Have a great night!