January 2010 Project

We partnered this month with the Service Station Sunday School Class to cook 11 dishes of roast and potatoes and carrots (enough to feed 100 -120 people). Thanks Service Station Class! We met at the church at 11am this morning to combine all of the food and pour into containers to keep it hot and to serve from. At 12noon, we left to go downtown to serve our brothers and sisters in need in Miller Park. We served hot lunches to about 50 guests in the park from 12:30 to 1:30. I have come to know many of the folks we served through Wednesdays at Forrest Avenue UMC. I had put the word out "on the street" last week that we would be in the park today and many of our friends showed up. It was another wonderful day serving and seeing Christ. He even shows up in 20-degree weather. The sun came out the whole time we were there to keep us warm. We had 19 youth and 11 adults. The youth served food and visited with our guests. It was truly another "kingdom afternoon."

One guest commented, "It was so cold this morning, I thought about not leaving my camp. But when I looked at the flyer I got last week and saw that it said ARK- Acts of Random Kindness- I thought, if those youth can come out in the cold to bring us a meal, I can at least show my appreciation by coming to the park and enjoying the lunch they had prepared."

We also had a middle-school youth come with their parent who had made blankets (by hand) to give out. Another high school student in our group cooked the recipe himself and brought it to serve. Afterwards, we took the youth to eat lunch at Rossell's Pizza. One youth led a short devotion there about what it means to be part of a community and how God calls us to live in such a community. He made note of the wide range of ages working within our own ARK community today. He closed by saying, "I like the fact that most people do community service around Christmas and New Years. But we do it monthly throughout the year."- very insightful for a 17-year-old. We ate at Roselli's Pizza, as we often do, because the owner of Roselli's always give us a great deal on lunch. He says he does this as his way of supporting what the youth at our church are doing.

Thanks be to God for the many ways He moves in and through our community.