Monday a.m.

Good morning! A new day and a new week has arrived. God is faithful yet again. I'm going to take this week one day (or less) at a time, since it includes not one but two trips to Indianapolis. There I go again, getting ahead of myself.

The weekend was busy busy but amazing in lots of ways. I smoked 8 pork shoulders on Friday. Took all day. Then Friday evening I pulled them, along with Kedra and B.A. After the pull, Kedra and I went to the high school basketball game.

Saturday was the big day! Here's some of the stuff that happened on Saturday:

• We had our Coat Giveaway, and we gave away more than 300 coats to people who needed them. We had amazing organization and planning from some great people. They included lots and lots of volunteers.
• Woodville Baptist church, several months ago, asked to help by collecting gloves, hats, and mittens. They asked to come into our building and work side by side with us, in order for it to be more convenient for those receiving needed items. Isn't that great?
• The Methodist church also wanted to be involved, so they decided to offer a free meal in their building from 11 - 1, which we promoted at our events. I went down and was pleased to find that they were pleased with the number of folks who came to eat.
• The Honduras mission team sold pulled pork and other things and made a nice amount of money that will be used on mission trips.
• The library was present in a couple of places to sign up children for Pre-K reading program and to promote an activity/event they were having Saturday afternoon. Around 100 went to that.
• The Toy Sale in our gym was amazing! Hundreds of people came in and bought tons of toys. We sold nearly $4700 worth of toys. That's a bit staggering when you think about it. Most things are priced around a dollar or two. I think the highest priced item was a nice bike at $30. Our Store staff are some of the most dedicated servants you will ever meet. I really mean that.
• At the end of the sale, we donated all that was left to Santa Joe, a local guy who refurbishes toys and gives them to children in need. It was such a blessing for us to have him take the remaining toys away, and it was a blessing to him to have a truckload+ of toys that will require no refurbishing.

Saturday was one of my favorite days of this year. There was such a unity present and an awareness that we were serving God by serving others. Children will be warm when the weather gets cold, and a lot of children will have gifts on Christmas morning. I think the biggest thing is that people had to notice in our little town was that a lot of caring and loving was going on in the name of Jesus. Next year I think there will be a couple of more churches join in to create an even bigger day of blessing.

Today is going to be wall to wall. Is that why I got up at 4:15?? Maybe. I just woke up, ready to get after it. I will spend a little time getting organized this morning, along with some study. Then I've got a Marriage and Family Alliance meeting, followed by helping 2 families in need. I think one family has no heat, and the other one has no money. Then I get to spend some time with Christopher W. from Washington, followed by a visit to the nursing home, followed by some time at the Store, followed by/interrupted by ??.  (Interruptions are my work.)

This evening at 5:15 I will participate in Norm's Run. A local educator/historian died suddenly last week while running, so we will run in his memory/honor. As I was running with Bill the other day, asking about Norm, he said, "The reason I know you is because of Norm," explaining how Norm got Bill and others into running. I did not know Norm, but I know a lot of the people who do. Good enough for me.

OK, I'll save some stuff for tomorrow...