Miscalculations and OCC Soap Update

Dusting off the old blog to give you all an update on the 2015 OCC soap project.

Well, I've hit a snag. Nothing our God can't handle. :) But here is the long version of the situation.

I carefully calculated how much supplies I would need to make 12,000 bars of soap for November 2015's packing party at my church. I calculated $490 dollars and set out to raise the money. I organized and held a scrap booking event as a fundraiser and made just over $400. Then people also have handed me money to help out with buying supplies. I was able to get the $490 and purchase the supplies.

I bought 15,000 3x4 zip lock bags to put the soaps in. (So, I have enough of these for the goal)
I bought 6 - 50 lb boxes of tallow
I bought 32 lbs of lye
I was given about 16 lbs of lye
I was given 50 lbs of Palm oil

I've been turning all the oil and lye into soap for months now. I have 1 box of tallow left and I've made just about 7,000 bars of soap. I started wondering what was going on when I emptied the 3rd box of tallow and had only made about 3,000 bars of soap. I was so confused! Where did I go wrong? I should be half way to 15,000 by now...15,000 is the number I felt called to make, even though I calculated for about 12,000 bars. When I went to buy bags I had the prompting to order 15,000 bags and that God would make sure to fill them. So, I listened. He'll still fill all these bags, just maybe not all this year. Grin.

I took some time yesterday to sit down and look at my paper I made my calculations on.
I had written down that 18 batches of soap = 12,528 bars of soap. I did the math again and found that 18 batches of soap actually equals 6,264 bars of soap. Each 15 lb batch of soap makes 348 bars. When I first calculated the amount of supplies I was thinking about how I make 6 loafs of soap every time I make soap for OCC and that those 6 loafs = 696 bars of soap. One 15 lb batch of soap = 348 bars of soap. I make 2 of those when I make OCC soap and fill all 6 of my soap molds. But I mixed it up and was thinking that 1 - 15 lb batch made 6 loafs, but I need 30 lbs of tallow to make 6 loafs = 696 bars.

So, if your still with me on this you can see that I DOUBLED the amount of bars that I thought was going to be able to make and only raised enough money for half the supplies I needed. Not knowing I needed twice as much supplies as I did.

PHEW! That is such a mess!

So, now I wait on God.

This is how you can pray for your soap maker today:

Is God's goal different than mine? Am I supposed to only make 7,000-8,000 bars of soap? Will He be sending $400 more dollars my way to buy the rest of the lye and tallow to make another 6.960 bars of soap?  Should I see if I can get free fat from the butcher again and start rendering tallow to make more soap and just buy the lye at a cost of $75? Do I have the time and energy to grind and render 300 lbs of tallow AND make it all into soap?

I know God has the answers.

You can use the donate button below if you feel led to give financially to the OCC soap project this year and for future years.