If ever I could say an event involving food, decorations, music, singing, gifts, volunteers, and hungry people went off perfectly, this would be the one. I am still amazed that everything happened Thanksgiving Day just exactly how I had envisioned it....down to every detail. It was definitely a God-honoring banquet.
First I'd like to say Thank You to those of you who made this happen. It seemed like we had an unlimited budget in this dinner, because every time I would buy something, more money would just come in and replace it! God was so good to us in planning this event. The love and support that YOU gave for these people, overwhelms me. Everything was perfect. Everything was beautiful. And YOU made these people feel like they belonged to a family and that they had value. I just start to cry when I think about the people, and their expressions and their gratitude. Some of the comments were "this was Top Shelf", and "this was better than eating at the Marriot," and "this felt like a family dinner."
Thank You for being used of Him to love them "like Jesus."
A few of us had gone in the night before to set up the tables and decorate. Nick Carnes had set us up in a nice building owned by the Presbyterian Church that he works at. We had a lot of fun getting things ready, and moving things around. Frank Peterson was our Facilitator, and he was doing a very good job at keeping each and every detail perfect. Steve Jones was also heavily involved, and did a remarkable job getting things set up for us. And keeping us laughing. That dude is hilarious.
The day before Thanksgiving, I was set to make quite a few side dishes, a ham, a turkey, and stuff the bags and get the place cards ready. By early in the afternoon, almost all of the cooking had been taken off my hands as some people that the Petersons know had called and wanted to do the cooking and serving. What a blessing! I still didn't go to bed til 2 a.m. but if I had to have done all that cooking....I would not have gone to bed at all! So THANK YOU!!!!
Then on Thanksgiving morning....it was show time! LOL! By the time Frank and I arrived, Steve and Peterson had the turkeys going in the fryer. Several volunteers were there and already working and getting things ready. Jose's wife, Kathy, came and she did an EXCELLENT job directing traffic in the kitchen and serving areas. She handled everything with such grace, she was not pushy or bossy, she was just perfect. And I can see now why she is employed as a Volunteer Coordinator. She is excellent at her job. She was a tremendous asset to us Thanksgiving Day!
All of the volunteers worked so well together, even though there was such a tiny kitchen, they all just moved like clock work and really seemed to enjoy the tasks they were involved in. I was so impressed with how God pulled all of it together.
Once our guests started to arrive, they were given a name tag and their names were written down for the drawings we had later. Then it was time to start the music and Jose really ushered in the Presence of God with his anointed music. We worshiped for a little while, then Frank read a few things from the Word. We prayed and then we were served our dinner. It was so yummy! The food was excellent. The presentation was beautiful. It was just all perfect! I was able to have my children there and really enjoyed taking them around to meet all of our church people. It was a good day.
Then it was time to give out the door prizes. We had 6 gift bags filled with goodies.....a blanket, a package of socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, and facial tissues. You would have thought these people won the lottery! LOL! They were quite excited about winning those gift bags!! I have an awesome story to share with you in another post about a guy named "A" who won one of the gift bags, and what happened to him...stay tuned! (Well, if you read backwards....you already know!)
Then Samantha pretended to call Frank Peterson's name out. The look on his face was really funny. We had Nicki Carnes embroider his name and A Church Without Walls on a black apron as a Thank You gift for doing such a good job facilitating the whole event. I think he was embarrassed. ;)
After that, we had these amazing duffel bags for the guests. We had ordered them the week before and they got here at 7:30 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving! They had "A Church Without Walls" imprinted on them, and we were able to put a pair of socks, a toothbrush, and a knitted hat with matching gloves into each bag. Everyone was so excited to receive those bags. They felt so loved and so special. Thank you to "you know who(s)" for those items!
Oh, we had some first time visitors too. We even had a man come that we got from the "highways and hedges".....literally. (That story will be told later....) There was also a group of 3 young people who came and as soon as the girl walked in, she said, "Ya'll are going to LOVE this!" We were right in the middle of playing some great music when they walked in, and I know they felt God there. I sure did!
After dinner, we were also able to give each person a to go box that was FULL of food, and no one went away empty handed. It was exactly how we wanted it to be. Then we packed up the rest of the to go boxes and Sharon took them to her building at the Maxwell House and fed probably 25-30 more people. It was like the loaves and fishes. So much food left over. Praise God!!! When I looked at the to go boxes that were left over, we used 78 of them and gave them all away! That's a lot of food! God is a God of ABUNDANCE!
Well, meanwhile, last Sunday we noticed that "L" had worn the soles out of his shoes. He probably walks no less than 10 miles a day. So Peterson went and got him another pair this week and we were going to give him the shoes on Thanksgiving. But guess what? He didn't come. I was so disappointed. When we were cleaning up, he showed up. Bless his heart, he had gone to ANOTHER Presbyterian Church quite some distance up the road and waited an hour and a half before he finally gave up and went to the soup kitchen to eat. I was so broken hearted! We gave him a to go box, and his duffel bag and told him to meet us at Sharon's to get his shoes. (We had to get him away from all the rest of the peeps....it would not have been nice to give shoes to only one person! LOL!)
When we got to Sharon's building, he had ridden "P's" bicycle up there. He took his shoes off and Sharon grabbed the Germ X to wash his feet off. He has so many sores and blisters, and that Germ X was not a good idea. Fortunately we had some hand soap, paper towels, and bottled water in the van, so we grabbed that and we scrubbed his little feet clean. We also gave him a nice foot massage and dried him off real good. I wonder when the last time he had clean feet was? He was so embarrassed though. He kept telling us to stop all that fuss. Then, Peterson says, "I know what "L's" thinking." We all stop and look up at him and said, "What?" Now you have to imagine all the fuss that was going on over "L"s feet here. The tender loving care we were taking, putting band-aids on the blisters, washing between his little toesies, drying them really well, the whole nine yards, and Peterson says, "He's thinking there is no way I'm letting these people buy me under ware."
I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe!
So, that was our very climatic ending to a very good day!
But do pray for Nick Carnes. Bless his heart. He ended up going that very night and having to have his appendix removed! So keep him in your prayers. I feel so bad for him because he was feeling lousy on Thanksgiving, but he stayed there with us and never complained.
Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully the PhotoBucket will play for you. I have pics of the ThanksGIVING Dinner, and some pics of the volunteers working very hard cleaning up.
No comments:
Post a Comment