New News!!!!

About two years ago, when Maplewood Bulk Foods was still in business, we were approached about placing a bid to do gift baskets for the St. Vincent Orthopedic Hospital. They give each patient a gift basket. Each out-patient gets a basket filled with a meal to go home: pasta, sauce, dessert, etc. Each inpatient gets a basket filled with snacks to enjoy with their families during their stay at the hospital. We gave them a bid, but were under-bid by about $.30 per basket. Well...a month or so ago, Paul received an e-mail from the Director of Patient Services of the Ortho Hospital, asking us again, if we would like to bid. So, we did. Well, after a week and a half or so of waiting after our bid was submitted we received an e-mail stating that we...(drum roll, please) had WON the bid! YEAH!!!!!!!!! I do 260 gift "baskets" a month. I deliver them on a bi-weekly basis, so I do 130 every two weeks. It is an awesome "stay-at-home" job for me. This is one reason I haven't blogged in a while. Just been busy getting everything rolling with this new undertaking. Hopefully things are going to "flow" from here on out.

A few days after we found out that we had won the bid, the Lord spoke to me one day while I was doing some house work and said: "I answered your prayer". As I stopped and thought about what He had just said to me, I realized that He really had! Several months before I had started praying, asking the Lord to use me, to be able to do something that was fulfilling and allow me to use the abilities that He has given me. He did answer that prayer for me back in November in an awesome way when He allowed me to decorate for the Faith Investment Dinner at UBC, and I enjoyed it so much. But now He is allowing me to do something that I thoroughly enjoy, on a regular basis, and now I even get paid to do it. Never in a million years would I have even imagined that this opportunity would be an option for us. He has shown me that "serving Him" isn't always in the ways, or places, that we think it should be. He is such an awesome God, and I just marvel over and over at His goodness and the awesome ways that He works in our lives to bring about His purpose, as well as give us the desires of our heart.

I should mention that when we bid on the project, we bid to do the "baskets" in gift bags instead. It is a lot less time consuming, and is not so tedious. Here is a picture of my first batch just getting started.

All complete and ready to go.

And more ready to head south!

On a sad note. I am asking you to pray for my parents and the church where my dad pastors. On Thursday, a man in their church was killed in an accident at work. They don't know exactly what happened, but he worked in maintenance, and had gone to the "bag room" (a filtering room for the entire plant. It is a plant that makes insulation.) to do some work. Because the room is a "filter" and it is like a vacuum, he was sucked into the room, which I understand is extremely hot, and the door was shut, and he was trapped in the room. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning. It takes 40% in your blood to kill you, he had 75% in his blood. Because of the extreme heat, his body was badly burned as well. The church, his family, as well as my parents, are devastated. My dad said that he thought Terry was the best friend he had ever had. Tuesday morning is the funeral, and my dad is to preach. I talked to my mom today and she said she doesn't know how dad will ever make it through the sermon. She said that my dad really needs prayer. Please pray for Terry's wife, Jane, and her children and grandchildren. Terry was my dad's "right-hand-man", and will be so desperately missed by everyone that knew him. Please pray for my sister and I as well, as we will be playing and singing for the funeral. If you'd like to read the article in the local paper, click the link:

http://www.wabashplaindealer.com/articles/2008/03/15/local_news/local1.txt