The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD. Proverbs 21:31
I've been wondering how to capture what happened on Saturday at the Project Crazy Love (PCL) luncheon in such a way that those who weren't there would "get it"... I'm not sure its possible, but let's try.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13
Our prayer all along has been that our PCL girls would walk away from this lunch with a deeper understanding that there is a God who knows them and loves them. We believe, wholeheartedly, God answered that prayer.
CGGIRLS adopted 14 foster care girls for Christmas with a staggering 1, 120 gifts donated.
For those keeping score at home: Thats approximately 80 gifts each. Honestly, the sight stopped us in our tracks when we would go into the "Reindeer Room" gift holding tank.
The luncheon was amazing! All of the CG Teams: Wrapping, Decorating, Food Prep, Drama/Worship Team, The Mighty ELF teams were absolutely amazing! On site that day, we had women from Connection, Life Church, Open Arms, Metro South Church, Rivers of Living Water, and Westland FMC! Working side-by-side together...that in itself is a beautiful thing. :)
"You mean I can have as much chocolate as I want??" - PCL Girl!
Oh and did they ever! Cotton Candy was even dunked in that fountain! :)
For me personally, I was not prepared for how deeply the "encouragement tree" would affect our PCL girls. Looking back now we see it was the Lord's hand leading us to put that tree up. Those notes of encouragement (168 in total) that several of you wrote during the last CG event deeply ministered to our PCL girls. When I say deeply...I mean... DEEPLY. Tears. Lots of them. The PCL girls could not believe that women who did not know them would care enough to write them. They were sincerely touched. Watching that unfold has profoundly changed so many of us who witnessed it.
"I never got a card before in my life."
"I feel like they know me."
"How could they know thats how I feel?"
"I'm keeping every single one of these cards and hanging them in my room"
All of the girls opened up the one gift under the tree with their name on it. Thrilled to receive their "one" gift. They jumped up and down and screamed! :) Some of the girls, never took their robes off the entire time! We loved how God worked it out for the PCL girl who loves Tinkerbell to receive the Tinkerbell robe and the two roommates and best friends got matching robes. :)
And then the gift explosion happened! One by one each ELF came in calling out a PCL girl's name and all of their gifts came in like a flowing river. It was amazing! A few of the PCL girls were so overwhelmed they sat and cried before opening any gifts. It was almost too much for them. We aren't able to post any of those pictures publicly (a complete recap video will be shown at the next CG on January 27, 2012) but hopefully you'll get the picture painted for you just by these comments:
"All of this is for me?"
" One would have been enough."
"This is my favorite movie!"
"I get a bible with both the New and Old Testament?"
"Someone wrote me a note in the journal...see!"
"SpongeBob is my husband ... I love this movie"
All of the girls received the book Redeeming Love and they would yell out, "BOOKCLUB!" when one would open it.
"How did you know I loved the color Pink?"
"This is my birthstone!"
CGGirls, remember those Old Navy Hoodies?
"Is this new? I can't believe I got something new!"
"I love this smell. It's the store smell."
God showed them in a very personal way they are not forgotten. Not only are they not forgotten -- they are loved and a treasure of great value.
I can't thank you enough for all of your generous donations, the tireless hours spent shopping, wrapping and preparing.
We wanted God to be honored with putting our very best effort forth and I believe that happened. We believe PCL was completely authored by God.
So thankful that He chooses to use us when writing someone else's story, aren't you?
The PCL girls came back to the Christmas Play at Connection Church that evening and gave me this beautiful thank you note:
"Dear CG Girls, Thank you so much for the lunch and all the presents! We appreciated it alot and it meant so much to us. I don't think words can explain. It really brightened our day and showed alot of us that there is a God. And there are people who care about us. Thank you so much!"
