The After Picture

We had the "Before" picture last week. Now here is the "After" picture and the story of how we got there!

 

I woke up on Monday morning not knowing what kind of day it was going to be.

Christi and Bonnie had called me on Friday evening to pass along the bad news: There was a problem at the farm in New Mexico where our pumpkins come from. Something about a gas line and an accident. Whatever the details were, it meant that our pumpkins weren't going to arrive on Saturday (when we were ready for them with a team of volunteers) and would instead be coming sometime on Monday (when folks would be working, kids would be in school, and our list of volunteers suddenly came up a lot shorter).

Then something amazing happened.

A little before 1PM my son Henry and I got to the church to help out. It wasn't looking good. I saw Charlie. I saw Julie. I saw Christi and Bonnie. But I didn't see the truck. And I didn't see many other folks. I started to think, "This might be a long day."

I was putting sunscreen on Henry when Beth drove up. Then Andrea drove up. Then Don and Kay came from around the other side of the building. Chuck was there (and he's not even a member!). Things were starting to look up, but still not truck.

Suddenly a carfull of Andrea's classmates from ASU arrived. Then another carfull. Then another. Suddenly Nancy was there.  Bob and Shirley were too. So were Carol and Cathy and and Jan and Carrie (and Carrie's friend and Carrie's friend's kid!). Katie came to work and brought June with her. Marilyn dropped off RJ, and then found a parking spot for herself. Greg even showed up with his famous Greg-shirt on.

Then, a sight for sore eyes. The truck was here! It was 45-minutes late (okay fine, 2-days, 2-hours, and 45-minutes late!) but it was here!

And folks just kept coming. Daryl and Abigail. Seth, Cecile, and Grace (and Grace's friend Kennedy). Dave got the phone call and he came out.

The first wave of people jumped into the truck, another group grabbed wheelbarrels. We started unloading the boxes, then the little pumpkins, then the big pumpkins. Now there are so many people here that I can't keep up with them all anymore! I'm certain that I'm missing plenty of names and all I can say is..."Thank You."

 

Thank you to everyone who showed up. Thank you to everyone who was unloading pumpkins from inside a (very warm) tractor trailer cab. Thank you to all the folks who were lugging pumpkins. Thank you to the people who were rearranging them on the pallets and the haybails. Thank you to the crew that pricing pumpkins and the people that were moving pallets and the volunteers that were emptying boxes, and the designers who laid out the labyrinth. Thank you to everyone! We unloaded 1277 pumpkins in less than two hours on Monday afternoon.

 

I still can't believe it. 

It was an amazing sight to behold.

It is a story that I am going to be telling for a long time.

I woke up on Monday morning not knowing what kind of day it was going to be. And after watching our church members and friends come together, I can safely say, "This was a very good day."