Yesterday a colleague of mine,who supports the ministry of Sarah's Butterflies, made an observation about our impact.  
   She said to me, "That is like this entire building."  It was very true.  It would be like us giving a Blessing Bag to every student at the Elementary from Kindergarten through sixth grade.  This is what we do.  We give to children in the cities of Sharon and Farrell in need.  We are not going to places where they have all they could imagine.  We go where they are hungry, thirsty, cold, discouraged, disillusioned, unloved and we tell them THEY ARE IMPORTANT.  We hug them, we listen, we hand them a bag and tell them, we care. 

     It has been a week since we distributed Blessing Bags and School Supply Bags.  The tables were stacked more than they ever have.  We packed and distributed 625 Blessing Bags and nearly 300 School Supply Bags.  
     I have already begun planning and making notes for 2016.  
     Jim and I have set the goals.  We are working towards 700 Blessing Bags and 400 School Supply Bags.
      We have determined some needs already.  

1. Cookies -I need people willing to bake cookies for this ministry.  To give each child cookies requires a lot 700 bags times 6 cookies is 4,200 cookies or 350 dozen cookies.  I spoke to my mom and we decided to keep it simple (sugar cookies, cookie press, chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies.  We are avoiding peanut butter and any cookies that contain nuts to avoid allergies.)

2.  Snacks-See our supply list

3.  Books for all ages- You are all wonderful at donating.  However, we seem to get a lot of books for the youngest kids.  That is great but we have a lot of older readers (upper elementary) who don't get books on their levels.  For some suggestions, please see the supply list.  I will be updating the list.  Also feel free to suggest some books in the comments

4.   If you have any suggestions for churches interested in becoming involved, please contact me.  You can post a comment in the contact and I will get in touch with you.

Thank you again.  Happy New  Year and may God richly bless you in 2016.