I know what you are thinking. “We literally JUST wrapped up the school year! Why are we already talking about Back To School events?”
Well my friend, in the immortal words of a great philosopher “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
We are expanding how we unleash hope through our Pack A Pack efforts this year. We are excited to not only partner with our neighborhood schools through the Francis Howell School District but we will continue our relationship with the City of St. Charles School District as well. We are so excited to also support the back-to-school efforts of the Boys and Girls Clubs in both of the St. Charles County locations. In addition, we supporting the outreach efforts of We Love St. Charles! Traditionally Harvester has collected school supplies in August but in order to meet the needs of the school districts and non-profits Pack A Pack has been moved up to July. We will collect school supplies from July 9-July 23rd this year. To get ready for one of our biggest outreach efforts of the year here are three things you can do today to support Pack A Pack.
- Pray. It seems like an obvious one but please pray for the teachers and students who will receive these supplies to be blessed not just by the supplies but by the act of generosity. Pray it creates a sense of curiosity to find and follow Jesus.
- Purchase school supplies. Go ahead and start seeking out those great deals and sales on new school supplies. Encourage your small group or neighbors to join in. We have created this Amazon list to make it easy peasy for school supplies to be delivered directly to Harvester.
- Block out time now. We will need TONS of volunteers to fulfill all of these commitments. Volunteers will be needed every week from July 9th- August 9th to haul supplies, sort supplies, pack backpacks, deliver the supplies, and even serve a ton of hot dogs. Pray God shows you where you can create margin in order to serve during these efforts.
Pack A Pack has always been a time when everyone in our church family can come around to the needs of struggling families and children in our community. New school supplies, of course, set up children to be successful in the classroom. Of course, it eliminates an unneeded burden on teachers. Let’s not miss the opportunity of God might use the simplest tools, a box of crayons, a box of pencils, or a new notebook to begin a relationship with someone to help them find and follow Jesus.