Bowled over by His blessings!

I volunteer at The Good Shepherd Center –our local “mission”. (heretofore The GSC) Some days I spend my time conducting intake interviews to determine if an individual or family meets the income guidelines to receive free food from our Pantry.
Other days I stock the shelves of the Treasure Store with all kinds of neat junk that people donate. And I run the cash register in the Treasure Store too.

Ninety percent of my Christmas shopping for Olivia has been done at The GSC. Over several months I've picked up games (Green Eggs and Ham, Operation, Don’t Break the Ice, Arthur Goes to School), books (too numerous to list!), clothes, videos, a Dora doll backpack, puzzles, an addition to her Fisher Price dollhouse village...and the list goes on and on. In fact, I’ve had to curb my spending because I ran out of room in my “Christmas chest”. All told, I think I’ve spent about $25 - maybe less. And some of the things are still in the original packaging - never been opened.

I decided that I needed a new purse. In addition to a purse for me, I was looking for one made of tapestry to use as a backdrop for photographing my jewelry which will be put up for sale on my website. Purses at The GSC are always 50 cents each. Granted, some of them have decades worth of lint and cracker crumbs in the bottom, but most are clean and in good condition. They had no tapestry purses, but I found a little leather wallet clutch with a long strap - perfect to sling over my head, allowing for hands-free rummaging and shopping. There's even a pocket on the back for my cell phone and a pen. Perfect.

On my way out the door of The GSC, I spied a bowling ball. “How much?”
“Free - it’s going in the trash.”
“Trash!!”, I said with horror and disbelief, “Don’t throw it away, I want it.”
“For what?”
“I use them as lawn ornaments.”
(Insert strange looks and shoulder shrugging here.)
“Well, we’ll save them for you if you want because we get them in all the time and we just throw them away.”
Filled with excitement and glee (I know - it doesn't take much...) I picked it up and headed out the door.

When I got home, imagine my delight when I discovered that the bowling ball was RED! I quickly added it to one of the many groupings of balls we have throughout the property.



Then I sat down to 'change' wallets. Upon transferring my things from old wallet to new –guess what was in one of the pockets of the ‘new’ wallet for which I only paid 50 cents?.....$25.00

Brillo Man comes home that evening from his scrapping adventure and asked me if “this is anything you want to keep”. He handed me a tote bag full of highly collectible Shenango China and antique glassware. The tote –made of TAPESTRY!

So - all my Christmas shopping at The GSC has been ‘reimbursed’ with the $25.00, I’ve got my garden ornaments and my tapestry...and the end of the day, when I listened to my phone messages, there was one from The GSC.

They have another bowling ball for me!

God is good.

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All these blessings will come upon you
and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God...
Deuteronomy 28:2a

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