Project Pencil

Project Pencil

Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Galatians 6:9

“This is my fourteenth one!” someone crowed from the other side of the room. Looking up from my list of school supplies, I glanced over to see a preteen boy smiling widely, arms raised as he held a black-and-white backpack aloft.

We were in the midst of packing up items for Project Pencil, an initiative that provides school supplies for local kids in need. Not-yet-filled backpacks rested on the floor, while tables set up around the room were stacked with an organized jumble of notebooks, pencils, markers, crayons, folders, and much more. Kids and adults strolled around the room, eyes focused on school supply lists and hands busy adding items to backpacks they carried.

Within an hour of my arrival, the project was completed. As I walked to the front door with the event organizer, she marveled over how quickly the sorting had gone and how much she’s seen the project grow. In the past three years, they went from coordinating forty backpacks for area children to more than three hundred backpacks.

“It’s kind of my baby,” the organizer said, biting her lip as though it were a confession. As I assured her that it was a great project, valued by the community and something others were happy to help with, I also wondered why she felt the need to speak almost apologetically about her passion for such a project. As we said our good-byes and I headed into the parking lot, I thought about how easy it can be to get discouraged when it comes to helping others. The needs can be so great and the workers so few. We might even think that our efforts are small, something to feel apologetic about. Yet God reminds us not to get tired of doing what is good, because at just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing. This woman—one person—now impacts more than three hundred local children each year.

What acts of kindness have you felt nudged to do that appear to be small on the surface? One person’s actions can snowball and make a huge difference.

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Donate school supplies or choose another “small” action to be faithful in.