Procrastination gone bad -- but will turn out good

It's cold in San Antonio.  (Yeah, big news I know).  So as I was sitting and watching the news last night, I had a "duh" moment.  They were showing homeless downtown struggling for warmth.

I got a pit in my stomach.  You see, unbeknown  to most people at CTK, there is a box of blankets that was supposed to go somewhere 4 years ago.  I, at this point, have know idea where.  It was someone's project that fell through and we "forgot" they were there in a storage closet.  It is a major fail that just sometimes happens unfortunately.

So what do you do at 6:00 at night, when you have  probably 30 or so blankets that are not huge but it is really cold in San Antonio?  Practically and realistically, at that hour not a whole lot of anything.  The shelters had met curfew so going there really would not have helped.   It turns out Salvation Army doesn't want blankets.  Okay?

So, I did some research.  Went to places I knew and made calls.  From many I got -- bring them to a donation center.  The problem there is that the blankets are needed NOW - not after processing.

Here in a bit, I will be taking them down to St. Vincent De Paul to their dining room.  People who need them will be able to pick them up as needed.

What do I take from all of this?  Wow, procrastination and  not following through is really detrimental to programming.  Why has it taken this long for anybody to do anything with these blankets?  How sad is it that at the time, we were going to do something GOOD, but no one ever followed through.

This is how much of life is though.  Throughout the holidays, I passed the little red Salvation Army buckets by because I was too lazy to walk the 20 steps back to my car to grab change.  I would always say, "oh, next time I will grab the change."  How many times do I leave my food pantry donation at home instead of bringing it to church on Sunday?

This month starts our church's focus on Souper Bowl of Caring.  This is a tradition we have started from the national www.souperbowl.org campaign.  Everyone will be bringing food to church (gentle reminder) and will be donating money for 30 Hour Famine.

Let us each though additionally take that time to not procrastinate about helping.  Putting off helping does no good.  The "oh, I will do it tomorrow" mentality really helps no one.

So now, off to St. Vincent De Paul.