The Gift of Giving . . . .

This weekend has been one crazy weekend!! And, it's not even over yet!! Friday night was the ESC Team Christmas Party and boy, was it fun!! Not to mention, all my leaders pitched in and got me a gift certificate to "The Hair Fairy -- Gaylene"!!! It really was the PERFECT present!! (Thanks Brandi for the hint!) I got all of them neat little presents that I was so excited to give them!! Little did I know how perfect each one of them was!!!

Today (Saturday), our ESC Team hit the town to buy Christmas presents for a few families in our church and of course, kids in our children's ministry!! Cyndi & Krissy were my shopping buddies for the day. We had lunch at TaMolly's and ALL 3 of us ate for $11 thanks to some awesome coupons I found!! We (all of us shoppers) all saw each other at Wal-Mart and we were all having such a great time shopping for these kids!! We were the ones clogging up the aisles going over all the cool things we had bought for the person we were shopping for!!

The plan was to meet back at my house at 4 pm to start wrapping gifts. About 3:50, I started getting calls saying, "I'm going to be late!" That was great, though, because so were we!! We were still at the mall headed back to Layne Bryant for the final sales!!

When we were finished, we just went on and on about how excited we were to be blessing these families. The back of my car was loaded with sacks!!

We got to my house and Dusty & Kari were already there and were in the process of wrapping their gifts. We brought in sacks and sacks of presents and started sorting!! Soon, Eric, Nicole, & Tanna showed up with their loot and we all were wrapping together talking about how much fun we had!!

In the end, it was Krissy and I wrapping the final gifts. I swear, God multiplied our wrapping paper!!! I still have a TON of it left over!! We had made quite the mess of my living room, so we decided that we definately needed a picture of all the presents together. I grabbed my camera while Krissy started arranging presents. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I've never seen so many presents in one place at the same time!!! I did get pictures, but I haven't put them on my computer yet, so I'm sorry you don't get to see them yet. The funny thing is that my pictures don't even have all of the presents in them!! A few more will be showing up at church tomorrow and we were able to buy 2 new mattresses, which aren't in the pictures, but they will be presents.

I started to go to bed, but I couldn't lay down just thinking about all those presents in my living room!!!

I want to tell you what God showed me today. He loves me so much more than I love these kids we shopped for today. He wants to bless me above and beyond all I could ever hope, ask, or think. But, the main thing I walked away with today was this. I heard God say, "Rachel, I want you to ask me for those things that you want. . . spiritual things and natural things. Just ask. I will give you the desires of your heart. Just ask."

You know, the lists we got from these families, we had a budget that didn't seem like a lot of money. I knew it was a good start, but I never imagined that we would be able to give these families EVERYTHING they asked for -- EVERYTHING. There are a few things we're still looking for, but I know we'll find them. And, we did it all inside our budget. A few things were given to us from people who found out what we were doing and said, "Hey, I have this. It's BRAND NEW. Do you think you could use it?" New things still in the box and things a kid had put on their list!! Now, isn't that God!!

Today, God stretched our money farther than we expected!! We were at a clothing store and we had our clothes, but when we got to the counter, we found out we could get one more shirt. So, we went and got it and found out we could still get a piece of jewelry!! When the sales clerk printed our receipt, we spent $107 and saved $116!!! WOW!!

One of the moms wanted a gift that looked like it was impossible for us to do. After talking with a few people, we were able to do something with it. (I don't want to share what it was just in case she reads my blog!) :) It was totally the favor of the Lord!! When I went to pay for it, I thanked the lady for working with us and told her what we were doing. She was speechless that we were doing that for a family in our church!! I loved it!!!

Oh how I wish I could be there Christmas morning when those kids wake up and see those presents!! Oh how I wish I could be there to watch moms enjoy watching their kids open all of those presents knowing God took care of their Christmas!! Oh how I wish I could see the faces of the moms when they open their presents.

God, I ask you to show them your love for them this holiday season. I ask you to LAVISH your love on them. Show them how a true Father loves his children. God, I pray that you get ALL of the glory for those presents. I thank you for allowing me to be a part of such an awesome Christmas for a few blessed children. God, we know Christmas time is not all about the presents, but I pray that these families would just know how blessed they are and that you have great and amazing things in store for them. I pray that they would broaden the things they ask you for. And as they receive this season, I pray they would pass it forward.

UPDATE: Here are the pictures of ALL of the presents (minus the mattresses)!! The truth is that these pictures don't even do it justice!! There are presents piled underneath all of that!! It's really amazing!!