2 minutes of rain .....

What a good night. The weather was great.....nice and breezy....not too chilly.....and the only time it rained around us was in between stops! Literally,we packed up the 1st stop and the bottom fell out for about 2 minutes. By the time I got out of the truck at the Mercy House it had stopped and didn't rain again as long as we were there.

We always pray at the end of the 1st stop before we head to the Mercy house and as we finished and started off I said something to the effect of 'Y'all can pray while we're heading over there for God to hold off the rain if you want to"..... and he did. I honestly believe he heard our prayers. Several people with phones much more advanced than mine said they saw a big band of rain coming for us and it would probably get us at the Mercy House. But it didn't and we thank God for that.

We did a little housecleaning tonight and thawed out some of our leftovers. We served fish chowder, Brunswick Stew, and an original creation - Baked Potato Chili (we had Baked Potatoes last week with chili and other stuff on top. We had a decent amount of chili and some whole Baked Potatoes left over, so we cut up the potatoes and threw them into the chili and froze it. Voila! Baked Potato Chili). We also cooked grilled cheese and roast pork sandwiches to go with it.
In addition to that, Robin Manning was nice enough to make a huge baked spaghetti for us that got eaten in no time. (Robin has been very good to us. Last week she gave a bunch of brownies and pound cakes that everybody loved and led the drive that got the Crosstraining Kids to collect toiletry items for our Tuesday night friends. She also donated a turkey at Thanksgiving and came down and videotaped the whole 3 ring circus that night. Ya gotta love Robin!)

We had almost all the regulars and several new folks helping and that made it fun. The first stop is usually the less attended of the 2 we do, so the opportunity for fellowship, both with our guests and with each other, is good.

Wow. You know what? I just counted up how many folks were here tonight to help and it came up to be 20! 20 people felt led to come be a part of what we did tonight. That absolutely blows me away.
And I didn't even become fully aware of it until now. I saw 'em all....and I spoke to 'em all... but 20 people? I'll say it again. Wow. That's a long way from just me and Gary McKnight handing out Hot Dogs on Market St. back in the day.

It's all God's doing. I'm a horrible poster child for this thing. When asked about it I never feel like I do a good job explaining it. I haven't even been able to come up with a decent name for it, never mind a cool one. Something like Hezekiah 9:6(look it up) or Heaven's Food basket Ministries. I just always refer to it as "Tuesday night" or "the homeless thing." So believe me, people showing up and giving their time and lives away on Tuesday is all about the Holy Spirit leading them there, not anything on our part. (There are some cool stories about how some of the people that come every week wound up there. Later on about those...)

Next post I'll tell you what the schedule usually is and what a typical night is for us. Meanwhile, if you read this and want to pray for what God does on Tuesday nights, thank you. He has been faithful to us the entire time we've been doing this and we pray and believe he will continue to do so.

g

P.S. Most importantly, you can pray for the people we serve. There were several tonight who were worse off than we normally see and very much in need of God's mercy and protection. Lift them up if you get the chance this week and pray that God will continue to go ahead of us each week and prepare their hearts and ours for the blessings he provides for us on Tuesday nights.