A Story of Late Arrival

Soon after “Shear Blessings" launched at Blackshear Elementary in September of 2012, I was eager to bring my high school son, Jacob, on a delivery. Jacob had participated in shopping for inventory, loading and organizing inventory and packing individual weekend food bags, but had not yet participated in a campus delivery since he also was in school. I wanted him to have the opportunity to see this ministry full circle and had considered taking him out of school in order to do so. As it happened, his own school had an early dismissal day on October 19, 2012, and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get him on campus to help with the delivery. The week prior, I spoke with the building principal, Ms. Alexandre, to ask if it would be okay to deliver bags at 1:00 pm instead of the usual time of 10:00 am. Everyone agreed that delaying the delivery time by a few hours would not be problematic. 

We were wrong.

When, Jacob and I, along with the other volunteers, arrived at 1:00 pm that Friday afternoon, the office staff described a state of panic in many classrooms because Blessings “didn’t come”.  We had no idea that the kids had come to expect us at a certain time on Friday, that they were watching, waiting and listening for us. Although each weekend food bag is left outside classroom doors, so as to not interrupt teaching, the children, unbeknownst to Blessings volunteers and campus staff, had come to expect to have their “Blessings” before lunch. The staff recounted to us how a little boy who was picked up early that day was upset that “He didn’t have his Blessing” and almost refused to leave with his mom. The staff had to promise him that they would “save” his Blessings bag for him to get on Monday.  Some children were visibly upset and crying because “Blessings didn’t come” and teachers had to re-assure them that Blessings was in fact coming but just a little later than usual.

Although this experience was upsetting for us all, it emphasized the critical importance of predictability and consistency in the work we do. Children rely on these weekend food bags and find peace in the routine schedule of delivery.

Consistency matters to kids.
Reliability matters to kids.
Predictability matters to kids and
Weekend food matters to kids.

Since that day in October 2012, Blessings volunteers are on each program campus with little to no variation in the schedule. We want our children to count on us and we want our children to feel seen and heard.  School lessons are all important but this one proved to be incredibly valuable to us as it taught us how to do better and be better in the work that we do.