His Extravagant Love... and Our Blessing

I just have to share something with you. My heart is just filled to overflowing and I am about to burst if I don't get to share this with you. But, I want to be so careful in my sharing, because more than anything, I want God to receive ALL of the glory!

Remember when Rachel was blessed to go to on a Mission trip this summer?

It was a life changing experience. She and several youth in our church really sought the Lord's leadership in starting some type of apartment ministry in our area.

God provided just the right place and my girls have fallen head over heals in love with the 20 to 25 children that come twice a month to the outreach.

Mr. Incredible was blessed with a Christmas bonus this year and we were so thankful. We desired to use part of it to bless others. Normally, we just pray about what God would have us do and then we do it. This year I felt like God was asking us to include our daughters in the process and ask for their input.

Without hesitation they mentioned the children who hold special places in their hearts. And I cried. I just love to see God at work in their lives and their desire to follow His leading.

We came up with the idea of making special treat bags for 30 children.

I got up early Saturday morning and shopped for items that the girls had listed. We never know which children will show up so we wanted the gift bags to not be gender specific.

The Lord and I found coloring books, crayons, scented bubbles, playdough, special Christmas pencils, Sour straws, candy canes, and Christmas stickers. It was such a fun shopping trip.

Together the girls and I decorated 30 sacks and then carefully placed the treasures inside.

We will pray over each sack before we have the ultimate blessing of delivering them Sunday afternoon. I plan to just watch the faces of the precious little children and the precious faces of my own daughters as they joyfully serve the Lord side by side.

Here are pictures of the sacks:

And a few pictures of the designs:

By no means are the gifts extravagant. But they are filled with extravagant love and it is our prayer that each child will come to know Jesus as their Savior one day and His amazing, extravagant love for them.

***Update: Hannah got sick and she and I stayed home while Rachel and daddy delivered the gifts. Bibles were added to the gift bags. Mr. Incredible said it was awesome to get to write the child's name in their first Bible. One little girl named Destiny, who is Hannah's age (11), was so thrilled to receive her first Bible. He told her how to find Psalms and Proverbs and the book of John so that she could read more about Jesus. She marked the passage and plans to read about Him at home. We are praying that the Word will become alive and active in her very soon!