Always enough...

Some of you have been waiting months to hear this.  Some of you began asking about it and praying for it a couple of years ago.  This week we began serving students at Francis Howell Middle School.  Yay!  We currently have just a handful of kids that we are serving there and while I sure wish they were the only ones in need at the school, I know that God will provide even if the number grows.  As students move, parents get new jobs and other changes in circumstances that we don't always know the details about, our numbers change throughout the year.  At times they've grown to a point that i kind of held my breath as I prayed but no matter what the number has been, God has been faithful.  This ministry has been about showing the love of Christ in the community from the very beginning and since love has always been the heart of God, he is making himself known in these communities.  

My family has been in this community for almost twelve years and I can say that I have seen God moving throughout the people here in recent years and it is so fun to witness.  Each year there are new volunteers and donors for Bear Necessities and my prayer each week is that each and every person who participates knows how recklessly they are loved by God.  

This week God has met most of the needs we have in advance but there are two items that are still needed:

36 cans of corn

36 apples

If you are able to give toward this ministry, please give as you can.  As each person give what he/she can, there will be enough.  

"All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet,and it was distributed to anyone who had need."   Acts 4:32-35

Our Donation Needs This Week

What a glorious spring break!  According to Facebook, many of you saw the beach and a few even escaped to snowy mountaintops to ski, while the rest of us ventured out and explored the adventures here in the good ole 'Lou. No matter where we were, it seemed like everyone had a good time. Today is the first day back to school after spring break and the weathermen are predicting.... snow.  Well, according to weather.com, there is a 60% chance of snow but according to my calculations, the weathermen are wrong about 50% of the time and if I take half of 60% I get 30% so it's not going to snow. Sure, there's nothing scientifically accurate about that nonsense but it's getting me through this morning with a smile on my face.  ;)

We only need a couple of things to be able to serve the kids at John Weldon this week and here's the list:

25 Ritz cracker sleeves
6 Easy Mac Envelopes
35 cheez its snack size bags

If you're able to help, please do and if you're not, please pray and pass on the need to your friends in case they can help!

Have a blessed day!

Updates and Donation Needs for this week

It's been like forever but that's because it's been so incredibly busy with new transitions!  So, what's been happening...


John Weldon FINALLY got to celebrate their 100th day of school as much as Old Man Winter tried to fight them on it.  The amazing first and second graders at school went over the top to bring in 100 items for Bear Necessities!  I got the privilege of talking with the first graders about their contribution to the community.  Aren't they darling?!

We were also privileged to receive another grant funded donation from our friends at the Saint Charles Elks' Lodge.  I didn't get a photo of them because I'm sure the grown men who brought the THREE TRUCK FULLS would have frowned at me if I'd asked and they'd already made soooo many trips carrying up all the food they brought!  God uses this group of lovely people in such a mighty way and I'm so grateful for them!

Last week I had the privilege of meeting with the principal at Union High School in the Francis Howell  School District.  My darling friend has been substituting there and had mentioned what we've been doing. Kandy Worley is the principal there and such an incredible lady!  She has this great big heart to help her students achieve greatness and we all know that can hardly happen when there's a grumbly in their tumbly... (Winnie the Pooh, right?) So, we were brainstorming how we can solve the problem that she sees in her school with hunger.  We came up with a tentative plan that we thought would work and then out of no where, God just took over!  The Lord sent Harvester Church in Saint Peters to provide for Union High School.  When I left the meeting with Dr. Worley, we had lists of things to do to make it all happen and in one phone call, we checked of every item!  It's just incredible to see Christ's church throughout the community loving as Christ did!

In other exciting news for our community, we will be serving at Francis Howell Middle school very soon.  Dr. Huff recently met with his BIG (Building Improvement Group) and will be giving us numbers very soon for us to make sure that there are no hungry kids there either!

I'm not sure yet how the logistics of FHMS will work but I promise to give updates and ask for help as soon as I know!

Now, to end this very long post, we do need a couple of things this week for John Weldon:

15 Ritz cracker sleeves
15 Easy Mac envelopes

The plastic tub on the porch got blown away in the wind and shattered earlier this month so I'll be replacing it today.  Thanks, in advance, for everyone who works together to be Christ's church in this community!

Next week

A this point I'm not totally sure what we will need for next week.  The first and second graders at John Weldon celebrated the 100th day of school today FINALLY and to commemorate the day they each brought in a can of food for Bear Necessities.  I'll be picking everything up on Monday so expect an update then.  We will, for sure, need 35 apples but I can't be sure of anything else.

Have a blessed weekend!

Winter, birthday bags, next week, sign ups and news

I've got to say, I'm not really a big fan of winter... don't get me wrong, I like one or two big snows so that we can take the kids sledding but beyond that, the cold is just not for me.  I get cold and I cannot get warm!  I don't think I've had full feeling in my fingertips since November!  Tonight, however, we are supposed to get an icy mix and I'm so totally excited to hunker down tonight with the fam totally unable to go anywhere because the roads "might" be bad.  Sometimes, after a long crazy week, a good night of freezing rain is just what I need!  (Dear Lord, please let it all be melted by morning!)

Bear Necessities has continued to serve 41 kids in January and gave five of those kids birthday bags.  We have six birthday bags that need to go home in February and we need large gift bags and peanut free classroom treats for those kids.  Each student has 22-24 kids in their class.  The total number of treats we need is 133.  Remember that everything has to be individually wrapped, with the ingredients on it and on the peanut free list.  

Some of the items from the Student Council food drive are finally starting to run out.  The following items are needed for next week:

14 peanut butter (18 oz)

37 Ritz cracker sleeves

15 fruit cups

20 applesauce

40 apples

Lastly, all of the packing opportunities have been filled but if you are available on Friday mornings to drop off the bags at John Weldon, please sign up:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0F4AAEAA22A64-20122013

Ok.  Maybe this is actually last, we have been contacted by Francis Howell Middle school to begin serving the students there.  We don't know how many kids we will be serving but what I do know is that God will provide for these kids too!  

This week and the SignUp Genius

It's a beautiful day here in Missouri!  I hope everyone has had a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather since you just never know the next time we'll have freezing temps again!

We are back into full swing and ready for volunteers and donations for this semester.  Looking forward, our donation list will be shorter for the next month or so and then will go back to our more normal lists unless something unexpected happens.  Please be sure to check back in as things from the Student Council Food Drive will begin to run out soon.

This week we will need:

30 cans of soup
41 easy mac envelopes

The SignUp Genius is also ready to go and can be viewed here:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0F4AAEAA22A64-20122013

Last semester it filled up VERY quickly so don't delay if you're hoping to be able to bring your kiddos to help out!

God bless!

Welcome 2014

One of these days these kids will go back to school!  Just kidding but it has been a nice long break for sure.  There are just a few things that we need to be able to provide for the children this week:

34 peanut butter
21 Ritz cracker sleeves
30 easy mac envelopes

Hopefully the grocery stores will have these items restocked after Snowmageddon this week! 

I also wanted to update everyone on the amazing things that God did through this community the last two months.  Sixteen families received Thanksgiving dinner, forty-one children were blessed with stockings filled with goodies and twenty-one were given what they wanted for Christmas!  That is all in addition to receiving food each weekend so that not one child goes hungry!  It really is amazing what God can do with a group of willing people! 

Thank you to each person who has been a part of this ministry in 2013, I look forward to all that God will do in 2014! 

Look for the packing sign up to go up later this week.