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Tomorrow (Friday, the 20th) at noon at Fox Road, we'll deliver the totes to the teachers! Great job loving our community! "We love because He first loved us" John 4:19. Let's gather in the parking lot at noon and transfer any recently purchased supplies to the tote bags. After this, we'll each grab several of the bags we've stored on-site and with delight, deliver them to the teachers. When we give the bags, we'll just simply say, "Thanks for all you do for our community. You are loved."

Very excited to see as many of you who can make it tomorrow. Tell your boss you have something important to take care of! Tell your kids that giving apples is "old-school". Tell yourself:

"If anyone would be first, he must be last and servant of all" Mark 9:35

Prayer

Posted by Mike Willis on Thursday, August 19, 2010. Comment. View 1 comment.

Prayer is one of our pillars at Harvest: "Believing firmly in the power of prayer." Prayer is not a religious activity lost in antiquity but rather an expressive mentality of dependency on God. My most satisfying seasons of life have been when I'm praying most because it means I'm most surrendered and needy of God. Just as our mouths must communicate with one another, our souls must communicate with God (making use of our brains, brawn, and emotion).

I just finished reading through 2 Chronicles this morning and have been reading through Psalms. (I am not perfect and am behind in the Bible-in-a-year reading plan I use). Here are just two verses that have really jumped out at me this week:

"...and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven." 2 Chronicles 30:27
To consider our prayers rising to heaven, God's holy habitation, is good motivation. First, it's impetus to pray because I desperately need my prayers to be rising to God. Second, it's fearful because my prayers rise to God's holy habitation, so this purifies what I pray and keeps my prayers centered on God's will, dismissive of my own, until my will aligns with His.

"In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer." Psalm 109:4
The literal (Hebrew) translation of this is "...but I am prayer"!
David was praying so much that his name might as well have been 'Mr. Prayer'!
Uh, that's inspiring! Do I believe firmly in the power of prayer? I must!

Last night, I personally played some horrendous basketball with some baller Harvest men. Prior to this spectacle, there was a hilarious array of emails back and forth between all of us - perhaps distracting to our professional productivity - but very comical and relieving to our work days. The constancy of that email conversation was fun and connective - much like ongoing prayer, throughout the day ... a conversation rather than a mini-conference.

Prayer is such a grace that God has given us. No WiFi hotspot can compare.

Harvest Cares: Fox Road Teachers II

Posted by Mike Willis on Thursday, August 05, 2010. Comment.

This Sunday, the Harvest tote bags will be available at the welcome table! If you haven't already, determine with your family how many bags you want to fill, and take the appropriate number of bags. One family has already made their purchases and has determined each bag requires around $15-20 to fill. The Willis family plans to have our missional shopping outing tomorrow, then stuff the totes on Sunday afternoon. Some of you are boasting crazy deals like $.13 pencil packs ... that's criminal! As a reminder, bring all your filled totes on Sunday, August 15th so we can deliver them to teachers on Friday, the 20th at noon. Perhaps you could get your co-workers and neighbors in on this too! Click this sentence for a list of tax-free items and exemptions during this tax free weekend (tomorrow-Sunday, Aug 6-8).

Below is the original blog from several weeks ago entitled "Harvest Cares: Fox Road Teachers"

Did you know that teachers have to pay for their own supplies? They do, so let's help the 69 teachers at Fox Road Elementary! Like announced Sunday morning, we'll be gathering teachers supplies in reusable Harvest totes (available Sunday, August 8th) and then delivering them to the teachers at Fox Road at noon on August 20th (mark your calendars)! If you'd like, go ahead and start shopping using coupons and back-to-school deals. Determine how many bags you'd like to pack. Insert an encouraging, love-of-Jesus note into each one. Bring your filled bags on Sunday, August 15th. We'll gather them and bring them to Fox Road on the 20th for you to personally give to teachers if you're able to make this your lunch break. Bring a co-worker along with you! Get anyone you want involved!

It seems like it might be easier and 'more bang for your buck' to get multi-packs of things (paper towels, tissues, etc) and disperse them into multiple bags. Also, tax-free weekend in August 6-8 which applies to all school supplies under $100 so take advantage of this to fill another bag!

Quote from Principal Melanie Rhoads in response to this project: "This is very kind of all of you! Thanks especially for looking out for the teachers and taking care of them."

Here is the suggested list from Melanie (let's stick to this list): highlighters, variety color dry-erase markers, clipboard, colored post-it notes, pens, pencils, plastic ware (forks, knives, spoons), gallon-sized bags, baby wipes, tissues, and paper towels.

Here is a Van Gogh rendering of what the filled bag would look like using x-ray (much thanks Vince!):

Excited about this project Harvest! Way to love Raleigh and impact generations (Psalm 145:4)!

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