A thanksgiving update.

We are going to pick up the last bit of supplies for the Thanksgiving Outreach over the next few days. We have been both stunned and humbled by the outpouring of help we have received. From people we don't know volunteering to cook turkeys for us, to businesses not on our radar donating far beyond our expectations, to needed items appearing out of nowhere - it's been incredible.

My favorite story of how God has provided through all of this: I was at work one day, and there was a fussy toddler at another table. I stopped, played with him for a minute or two, and then went back to check on my tables. I apologized to a man in my section, explaining that there was a fussy little boy and that my wife and i had worked with that age group at church. He said, "So, i take it you're my brother in Christ?"

I talked to the man for a few minutes, I told him what we were doing on Thanksgiving, and he offered to make a few phone calls for us. (If you don't know yet what we're doing on Thanksgiving, read the post below this one.) We exchanged business cards, and went on our respective ways.

I got a phone call from him the next day, telling me he had called Lewis Bakeries for us, and that they would get in touch with us. I e-mailed thanking him, and he e-mailed me back, saying that he and his wife wanted to help. We told him our biggest need was canned sodas.

He and his wife bought us 12 cases of soda. Oh, and Lewis Bakeries called back, and they donated 300 dinner rolls.

Now, for the kicker. That was the second time I had stopped to play with the child. The first time, he wasn't fussy - I was. I stopped to play with him because it would cheer me up - because there was a man "camping" at my big table doing paperwork. The same man who eventually bought us 250 cans of soda.

God saw my frustration over something i should not have even been frustrated over, a child refusing to eat, and a man doing paperwork - and he managed to make all of that into an amazing blessing. As well as a much needed dose of humility.

It's a lesson I will need to learn again in my life. Somehow, I'm OK with that.