- 7/3/2007 11:30:00 PMFireworks - Day 12Big sales at the cookie table. Mary said the children made over $50 dollars yesterday. That is awesome! Today's sales brought them to around $120.
Kurt B. stayed over last night. He works in Green Bay and will drive to work early. That will be tough - I know. His wife Sue packed some fruit and snacks for us for in the morning. She must have known that my birthday is coming up. She taped a birthday candle to the bag of snacks she packed for me. Her mind is continuously on serving other people. She is a good person to emulate.
We had steady rain and thunder last night and thankfully only some minor leaking in the tent. We lost one Ground-Hog ground spinner to water damage. It fell off of the table and into a puddle on the ground. Carol says there is more rain in the forecast.
One of the volunteers told me of an interesting thought they had. It seemed symbolic that on this holiday where we celebrate our independence the freedom from tyranny, that we are selling fireworks (symbolic of war) so that we can free Yuri from the opression he is in.
Roger said we would be busy today, and we were. At some point in the afternoon, I went into WalMart to use the rest room. As I was returning to the tent, I was overcome with a great and profound sense of peace and joy. It occured to me how tired I was but not to the point of not being able to function. I was tired but very content and very pleased with how things were going at the tent, the volunteers and as a whole - my life. I prayed to the Lord, "Thank you for letting me be a small cog in your giant machine. Thank you for allowing me a place to put my hand on the plow of Your work."
As I approached the tent, my family and friends began to sing "happy birthday" to me. While I was away, the kids from Mary's class had offered up the idea to get a cake and have a small birthday party for me. Someone had given Mary some money to help purchase buns and supplies for the tent. There was enough left over for them to purchase a birthday cake, ice cream and some sparkling grape juice. So there I was... standing in WalMart's parking lot, surrounded by my family and friends, in front of a lot of strangers, listening to people singing and laughing all the while dark black storm clouds were building over head. What an awesome witness we must have been!
We quickly moved inside the tent. When the rain came, it came hard. Buckets of water poured into the tent across the floor. All the children jumpped up and down in the puddles. My son and daughter made a boat from an empty box and floated it from one end of the tent to the other. The power cords from the generator were under water. We scrambled to get plastic over the fireworks. The harder it rained, the more customers came in and bought. The tent was packed and the money kept coming in. It rained all evening. Total sales were well over $3,000.
