Back- to-School Blessings
2018 has been a year of focusing on growing in God’s grace. His Grace is so powerful, good, and life-changing it must be why it’s called amazing.
I am convinced that God’s grace is most powerful when it is lived and shared with others. That’s why, for the past seven months and the remaining five, we’ve had opportunities to put grace into practice.
Most of you reading this know that our July Grace challenge was to fill 30 baskets and 30 backpacks full of school supplies for the teachers and students at Pleasant Valley Elementary School. Not only was every single one of them spoken for within two weeks, but through the month of July, my office grew smaller and smaller as it was filled with your gifts of grace—including $2,375 in gift cards.
This last Wednesday, August 1, at 8:00am in the morning, 18 hearty volunteers of every age helped haul those gifts from 4545 N. Meridian to 2000 West 29th St North, place them in the classrooms, and pray for the teacher and the students. It was a short trip, but the impact of it will be long.
In addition, to giving every teacher a basket of teacher supplies, and backpack of extra student supplies, they each will receive a letter from Northside explaining the Grace project, and containing two $25 Walmart gift cards, and a $25 Amazon gift card. We had extra gift cards amounting to $500 that were given to the school to use for any supplies they need this year.
The teachers official first day is Monday, August 6. One teacher was there the day we delivered setting up her classroom early. That teacher sent Northside a message on Facebook: “Thank you so very much for the school supplies! I am a 2nd grade teacher at PVE. It was sooooooooooo nice to come in to!”
It brought joy to my heart (and I hope yours too) to read that. And greater still is my joy to imagine the rest of the teachers stepping into an empty classroom on Monday with a gifts of love from people they do not know. That type of “grace-full” experience, is remarkable. The principal, Randall Harding, was blown away and was profusely thankful. Afterward, he joined us as we prayed in front of the school.
Thank you to each one of you who took up the challenge! Thank you for living out grace with your prayer pals. Thank you for extending grace to the good folks at Pleasant Valley Elementary.
Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” I am so grateful that we are not only growing in grace, but also living it out!