June 1: Blessing Bags

First, a thought: Admittedly, with the end of school crashing upon me like a tsunami, I felt a bit shell-shocked to jump right into summer. The transition from the end of school the beginning of summer was anything but graceful. So, when I woke up on June 1st, I honestly hadn't even realized it was no longer May. Gasp! My challenge of Chieko's Change had begun without me!

June 1: On Saturday, my husband and I were driving around town when we saw a homeless man on the side of the road with a cardboard sign. Luckily, we had a Blessing Bag in the car to give him. 

Here's the story behind the Blessing Bags...

My husband and I are so blessed to be a part of a community group through our church. This group is comprised of amazing men and women. A few weeks ago, we decided that we wanted to do something together as a group to serve and honor Jesus. My husband and I have a passion for outreach and suggested the idea of building Blessing Bags together. 

We made a list of items that can survive the heat of a car and decided which family would be responsible for which item. Our list included peanut butter crackers, granola bars, bottles of water, Chapstick, gum, hand sanitizer, a card telling about our church, etc. We met together a couple of weeks later for a grill-out and to assemble the blessing bags. We made fifty and each family had something they contributed and now every car in the family is stocked with Blessing Bags. We plan on making new bags at the beginning of each season and to make sure this outreach opportunity doesn't pass us by. 

It was so nice to have the time for fellowship and it was really great to see the kids take part too. In fact, one little girl saw a homeless person on the way to the grill-out and told her mom how excited she was to have the Blessing Bags to give out. I love the fact that we are serving as a group and modeling outreach for our children.