The Faith Business

All these years I thought I knew what it meant to live by faith. I didn’t know anything about it. But I think I am learning about the faith business now. Bethel was planning a Santa Shop for Christmas. Parents would be able to come and pick out new, donated toys for their children’s Christmas, and children would be able to choose gifts for their parents from shirts, socks, cosmetics and other donated items. There was one small problem. The huge truckload of toys from churches in South Carolina turned out to be only a small portion of a truckload.

We had applications for 132 children to receive toys from the Santa Shop, and barely enough toys to fill those requests. We went into the sanctuary to pray about the situation. How could we tell families we were not able to live up to our promises of Christmas gifts? Last Christmas was so chaotic; this will actually be the first Christmas celebration after the storm for many. As we read through the applications we came to understand in a new way how the smallest material things can make a big difference to those who have lost everything.

We contacted another site to see if we could work together to deliver the promised shopping opportunities. We were overjoyed to hear that they had a pile of donated toys and lots of money and would be glad to send it all to our Santa Shop. It was my job to meet with their site director. I came away heartsick. There were no toys, only a promise of a huge truckload (where have I heard that before) to be delivered about 3 days before the event. The cash is only promised, too, as are the matching funds. I have been in business way too long, I guess, because all I could see was an empty warehouse and a lot of customers who would be disappointed. Those kids were counting on us.

Our volunteer coordinator smiled at me when I told her my story. “What do you think?” I asked, “You have been in the faith business, but I have not. Should I worry?” She didn’t answer. But that afternoon, a giant bag of Beanie Babies arrived from a doctor at the VA hospital who heard that we were planning a Santa Shop. Then two women volunteers arrived to cook for us this week bringing five trash bags packed with Beanie Babies. Tonight another site called to say that they had several big boxes of donated toys, and they would drive them over to us. I sent out an e-mail to our support network explaining our need for people to adopt families and support our Santa Shop and within an hour we received an e-mail from a couple who had volunteered earlier in the year. They are sending money for toys and their congregation will adopt a family. I have a family in mind for them already. I work with people who have seen miracles happen in the last year. I want to be in the faith business, too. I think I am in the right place.