Thanksgiving and this week

I am so sorry that I failed to give a Thanksgiving update BEFORE Thanksgiving as I should have!  With the hustle and bustle of getting everything to school and then getting my family out of town, I simply failed to do it.  The good news is that we did provide a Thanksgiving Blessing to every family that we serve!  It's just amazing how it all comes together every single time! 

I don't know where everyone in our community stands in relation to Jesus... I know that our we have donors with a variety of beliefs and I'm so thankful that we can all work together to show love to those in need.  For me, I confess that I am totally a believer of Jesus.  I don't just believe that he's the Messiah that was awaited for generations but that he is the one who walks with me through every good and bad day that I have.  It has been nothing short of amazing to see what can only be his hand working in Bear Necessities.  I am handed cash for Bear Necessities when I least expect it... or receive donations from people I didn't know knew about it and aren't in any way related to our school.  How things come in for Bear Necessities varies every.single.week but one thing does not vary;  we always have enough.  

I was talking with my kids this morning about what they have experienced of God and they both said the same thing:  he provides for our needs.  We talked about the story in Genesis 22 where God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, his beloved son.  Abraham, acting in what has to be one of the greatest examples of faith ever, takes Isaac and heads off to the mountain.  Isaac, being a smart Israelite kid, asked his dad about the missing sacrifice.  I mean, his dad had said they were going to go make a sacrifice to God and they had the wood and the fire but nothing to kill as the actual sacrifice.  Abraham's reply was "God will provide." 

As the story goes, Abraham was just about to sacrifice his son when God stopped him and directed his attention to a ram caught in a thicket... the perfect sacrifice.  God provided.  

Abraham named that place Jehovah-Jireh, which means "God will provide."  I am blessed to say that because of Bear Necessities it is the name of God that my kids know best.  It is said often around our house because each week, in different ways, God always provides. 



Last year we were called to provide gifts for the kids and I hope that you'll be watching for a post about that in the next week.  I am still awaiting the list of what they want to come back from the school but I will get it up here as soon as I receive it.  I am also planning to provide for the weekends that fall over the Christmas break.  So those items will be added throughout the month of December which is why some of our numbers this week look larger than normal.


For this week, we will need:

46 30 individual cereal boxes
25 oatmeal
44 chili
50 22 beefaroni
22 easy mac envelopes
48 35 peas
48 juice boxes


Thank you to each person who is a part of the Bear Necessities community.  You are a huge blessing to so many and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!