On July 6 and 7, the noble volunteers for our Feed the Hungry program prepped, cooked and served lunch to a record number of Food Bank visitors. Phil Halloran and Charlotte Parkinsons led the Piper Family in prepping the food that Tuesday night. I was unable to make it there that night so I didn't get any pictures of their hard work!
FCUMC workers and their foodstuffs
The next day, the volunteers at the Fall City congregation opened their church to us early as they prepared their food bank. I visited with several of them and congratulated them on what a great program they had. It is impressive that for such a small church they can have such a big impact. The visitors to the food bank were lining up outside. I recognized several of them from June and said hello and invited them to have lunch with us.
Right Before the Fun Starts
Back in the kitchen, our Church's crack crew of volunteers worked at getting everything ready. In this picture you can see Sue O'Donnell putting the beat-down on some vegetables. Lucinda Hauser is looking back at the camera. Charles Grant is hanging out. I didn't get a picture of them, but Delaney and Stacy were there also. They ended up entertaining many of the visiting Food Bank children with a water-fight outside.
Good work makes good company
Rachel Combs arrived just in time to staff a crucial short-order role in the back. I tried to talk her into joining Lynn and me as table hosts since she appears to have at least SOME Spanish but she insisted that her talents could best be used on the back-end in the kitchen. My Amy couldn't come this time (Casey had woken with a bad cold) so we were short the waitress position. We were saved when He sent us Lacey Leigh and her son Paul. She took the role of waitress and he, the busser. Lacey ended up being one of the busiest people there that day; she really worked hard.
Denise and Terra setting settings
I caught up with Denise and Terra as they talked while preparing place settings. I tried to edge in the conversation but they would have none of it.
Pastor Lee Carney Hartman stopped by (on her day off!) to lead us in another starting-gun prayer at 11:55am and then the race was on! The line was opened and family after family poured and began their march down the line of tables, selecting their cans and bags. When they reached the end, Pastor Phil, Lynn Ritthaler or myself, as table hosts, invited them to sit and have lunch with us. Most did. The ones who did not were the quiet ones who wore nice clothes and had a look of tension on their faces. I guessed that they were people who had only recently fallen on hard times and were still coming to grips with their situation.
If you look at the visitors as a whole its about 90% women and children. The children are a delight and I'm finding that you can often get a family to come and eat if you appeal to the kids: "come and have lunch!" I'd say. "You can sit with me and we'll eat my neighbor Sam's cookies, which are the BEST I've ever had." (oops, sorry Amy!). Also, the kids are more likely to speak English and translate for you.
We are SO LUCKY to have the opportunity to do this. Seriously. Feeding disadvantaged women and children? How awesome is that? Slam dunk if you ask me. Also, I know of at least two groups of our church members, one from the early service and one from the second service, who got to know each while working together this time. That is another excellent side-effect of this program and a reason that we should encourage new people to help in this. There's no better way to get to know people than by working with your hands together.
The Amazing Laurie Edwards moves so fast a normal camera can't keep up!
And of course you know who was there the whole time, quietly mitigating problems before they arose and conducting us all like an orchestra of His will? That's right, Laurie Edwards. I tried to get a picture of her but she moves so fast that my camera couldn't keep up. Laurie never agreed to lead this endeavor but she has been a key person at each and every step along the way.
Later, after the food bank closed and the volunteers sat down to eat, Laurie announced that we'd fed 62 people that day. One of the Fall City members said that was an all-time record for lunches served in the history of their program. They thanked us for helping them, and we thanked them for giving us the opportunity and being so open about sharing their ministry with us.
We have ONE MORE lunch in front of us August. We still need SERVERS, CHEFS and COOKIE-BAKERS. Please contact me if you're interested in signing up for August! After that we get to decide how we are going to go forward with this program!
I want to thank everyone who contributed this July!
Snoqualmie United Methodist Church Middle School Winter Camp 2008 Lazy F Ranch on the Manashtash River, WA
TRIP REPORT On the weekend of February 23rd and 24th, five of the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church middle-school youth went up to the Lazy F ranch for UMC winter camp. The hardy souls were (clockwise from top left):
Andrew
Kelcey
Elizabeth
Hope
Kathleen (Kelcey's mom)
Molly
David Holmes (yours truly)
Kelcey's mom Kathleen was the other "Adult" besides myself. As per Marcia Reinert's suggestion, we stopped at the McDonald's in Ellensburg for lunch, where Elizabeth was shocked to find a hair in her french fries. Her face has this ability to convey intense amounts of disgust and horror. After getting some new fries, she and Kelcey went up into the playland area where they found a half-eaten SUBWAY MEAL. Gross! Elizabeth also reported strange grimy puddles up there. Again, the disgust was palpable.
As we arrived and registered I found that my plan of sneaking off in the middle of night to Ellensburg's accomodating Cowboy bars was foiled when the good Lord saw fit to put me in charge, at night, of not only Andrew but three youths from Wallingford who had no male youth leader with them.
Elizabeth and Kelcey tubing
The highlight of that afternoon was a couple of hours of tubing on the sledding hill. The kids went down the hill over and over again, sometimes solo, sometimes as part of a train and sometimes sharing a tube. The kids pleaded with Kathleen and I to join them but we chickened out; my idea of "Cold weather Gear" is a coffee-cup with a LID on it so I didn't want to get my jeans and sweatshirt wet.
Molly had no cold weather gear either but that didn't stop her from sledding and also attempting to walk in 3' snow. I watched her lose her shoe in deep banks of snow a few times and wondered what goes on in her mind.
After sledding there was barn-time where the kids played pool and ping pong. Molly likes to hit "home runs" with her ping pong paddle and this made for very short volleys. Kelcey showed some aptitude but before she and I could properly square off (and she be properly schooled) the dinner bell was rung.
We had all heard that the food at Lazy F was delicious and dinner did not disappoint. Dinner the first night was PASTA BAR. How cool is that???? Yum! And SUNDAES FOR DESSERT. After dinner we split up into small groups. I was in a separate group so I didn't see what happened with any of the other Snoqualmie people. Our group had three Davids among ten guys and, honestly, we spent most of the time playing Mafia. I'd never played that game before and I was intrigued by how the play seemed to involve very small amounts of public information. However, it appears that all players were using side-channel attacks because when I did an informal poll afterward, almost everyone admitted to cheating.
We called this kid "The Dolphin" in Small Groups.
The movie of the evening was "Night at the Musuem" which I had never seen, so I happily hung out and watched it while the kids furiously networked with each other. Hope can make friends in an instant; in fact, she's so good at making friends that we hardly ever saw her. Andrew is like that, too.
Our cabin that night was FULL; twelve dudes in six bunk-beds. It was hot in the room thanks to an eager heater but fortunately there was no snoring. Everyone was well behaved and slept well from what I could tell. Day two started with breakfast of b & e and cinnamon rolls too. And some decent coffee as well. There was another small groups session and then some play-time in the snow. In one of these pictures, you can see Andrew resting after pelting some of his new-found friends in a snowball fight.
After lunch (Taco Bar) there was a long rally that I think all of us were initially dreading. But you know what? It turned out to be very moving. It was cleansing and inspiring and there were more than a few moist eyes in the crowd. I got something in my eye, too, but with some discreet rubbing I got it out.
At one point during the service, I mean rally, some back-up singers were needed and Elizabeth and Hope stepped up to the task. See them here. Sorry for the poor video and audio but I was far away with my small group of guys.
Elizabeth and Hope step up as back-up singers
Lastly, here is my favorite video of the trip. Its a technique called "fauxtography" where the camera operator pretends to be setting up for a single still shot but is actually filming video the entire time. Just as Kathleen is about to snap a photo, Elizabeth decides that Kelcey doesn't need to be in the shot, and indeed, she is no-where to be seen in the final picture.
Elizabeth is a Diva
As promised, we returned all the children to their parents with limbs and brains intact so the trip was an unqualified success. But on a serious note, I honestly do thank the Lord that he gave me the opportunity to get to know these wonderful kids last weekend.
