Penney's Provisions

Day by day we pray for God to provide all the items we need to bless as many children as possible through our Operation Christmas Child packing party.  I've been especially praying this year for the quality of our boxes to be even better.  I'm asking God to make each box a blessing for the child who receives it--a worthy representation of His love.

It always amazes me to see how God provides, and today He really surprised me.

After breakfast at our local Chick-fil-A, my media coordinator, Pam, and I decided to stop at Penney's.  They advertised they'd be handing out coupons at the door for $10, $20, or $100 off. Now, we weren't sure if those coupons were to be used on a larger purchase or if they'd be the coveted ones that could be used almost as cash to buy items for the entire amount.

We drove to Penney's in our separate vehicles, and I arrived first, hurried into the store and got my coupon.  When I opened it, I was stunned to find it was for $100 off $100 or more!  I went back to the store employee who handed it to me and she excitedly called her supervisor to say, "We have a winner!"  I could hardly wait to get started on our shopping spree.

But, wait...it gets better!

When Pam got her coupon, hers was also for $100!  Only 2 out of 100 coupons were $100 ones and, by God's provision, we each got one.

We started looking for the best bargains possible so we could bless as many children as we could.  We started in the children's department and scoured every sale rack.  Unfortunately we couldn't find many low-priced sale items, but we did find some cute fleece pajama pants for $2.97 and a few shirts that were $3.59.

We checked the washcloths--too expensive at $5.99--and then headed down to the men's and women's departments.  It took us nearly two hours to complete our search of all the sale racks in every department.  Finally we found a great sale area in the misses' department with racks of nice brand name sweaters--including some Liz Claiborne--for $3.97 each.

Then it was off to the checkout.

Strategically, we worked together and used one coupon first, then regrouped and recounted and went to another register with the second coupon.  We watched carefully to be sure all the sale prices rang up properly.

Ultimately, God allowed us to walk out with high quality clothing items to bless another 56 children--

and, thanks to Penney's, we only paid a couple of hundred pennies (well, we didn't really give them pennies I was just trying to be clever.)

Thank You, God, for answering our prayers in such a unique (and FUN) way.