Daily Devotion

We continue our devotional theme of Joyful Generosity— our stewardship theme for this year.  If you have not yet turned in your Estimate of Giving Card—please do so THIS WEEK.  Our devotions are stories shared by members of Good Shepherd regarding how they used their God’s Grace Your Hands check last September.

LOOKING AHEAD: next week we will take a break from our Joyful Generosity theme for these devotions and instead focus on teaching about Holy Communion as we prepare to share in the Lord’s Supper from home while worshipping online on Pentecost Sunday, May 31^st at 10am. 

Today’s story comes from Kevin, Kristen, Tabitha and Phoebe Johnson

When our family opened up a check for $250, we were excited to do good right away, but struggled to agree on the right recipient. We wanted to find a local charitable cause… but had differing opinions from there. Our youngest child and animal lover wanted to help homeless pets. Other ideas involved a local food pantry and a child literacy program, and then came Hurricane Dorian… all worthy causes.

Finally, we arrived at a consensus and allocated the check to Crayons to Computers (crayons2computers.org). This organization donated over $8 Million in school supplies last year through their Teacher Free Store on Tennessee Avenue where teachers near Cincinnati, including those from Taft Elementary, can come shop for free school supplies. We knew that for every $1 we donated, it creates $10 worth of school supplies and that last year alone the supplies supported over 2300 teacher shopping visits.

With a 3rd & 6th grader in the house, we could all rally around reducing barriers which prevent kids from learning, and helping motivated teachers spark a passion for learning. To create a compounding effect, our family matched the GSLC donation, and submitted for “company matching funds” to essentially quadruple the impact on Crayons to Computers.

Due to safety regulations in their warehouse environment, our kids were unable to physically participate in volunteer day at C2C, but they came up with another idea… making baked goods which they delivered and personally thanked the volunteers at Crayons to Computers.

A final note about this charity, tying in with the recent sermon on the 10th leper (or perhaps “former-leper”)… the one who came back to thank and praise Jesus after being healed. We have been blessed to donate to C2C before, and were amazed by the number of thank-you notes which come back from teachers and students alike. Not trying to compare a mere cash donation to divine healing, but it warms the heart to read a hand-written note of thanks from a child who might otherwise not have the paper or pencil to write it.

Romans 12:6-7

⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;

Today pray for teachers and all those who instruct and mentor children.