...Tonight was a really cool night to be doing this.

Sometimes Heaven opens up and just pours out, and when it does, the best thing to do is get out of the way and let it.

John Liverman has Rotary Club on Tuesdays. When there has been enough food left over to make it worthwhile, he has asked for it and brought it for us to use. We were talking Sunday about what we were going to serve this week and I said I didn't know. (Twig wasn't going to be there so I hadn't made a plan yet, mainly because it doesn't really panic me to not have anything decided on Tuesday morning since I'm the only one that will be running around shopping that afternoon. When Twig's gonna be there it's different and we talk and plan ahead of time to share and map out responsibilities.) Anyway, we talked about the possibility of there being some food from their lunch on Tuesday and we could just add to it.
So I had a rough idea of something we could do. I was thinking baked potatoes and corn...something that would take more shape later.
He texted me today and said there was BBQ chicken, maybe enough for the 1st stop.
Cool.

I went down right after school and looked at how much there was and it was a pretty decent panful along with a pan of sweet potatoes. So I looked in the freezer and we had about enough chicken to thaw and add to it. Some mashed potatoes, some corn on the cob......now we're talking.

So I make the Sam's run and pick up some other essentials like plates, pans, cups, etc. that we were low on. I get back to the church, run over everything in my head and and wait for folks to start showing up.

CHRISTIAN / J.BOGGS/ MICHAEL/ PRUDEN/ CRAIG/ CREEEEEECH!/ ALEXANDRA/ LAUREN/ TAYLOR/ SARA /CHRIS / NICK/ JOSH / LAURA / BRIEN / TERESA/ MITCH/ SHANE /AUSTIN /HAMPTON / PEYTON / ANNA / MAGGIE / ELLEN / JOHN/ BLAKE / ELAINE / SAVANNAH / MIKE QUEEN / SEAN / STEVE / MADDIE and me
are the ones who showed up. 33. That amazes me.

So we cook and get it all together and go up to serve and ....there's 4 people there.
Now, we were a little early but still...4?
I wasn't sweating it because there's a regular contigent who don't come until after 8. Then one of the guys mentioned a lot of folks got their "250's" today.
Huh?
Government checks for $250. I wasn't sure why or if I'd have a "250" waiting for me at home, but I knew what the checks meant. We wouldn't see as many because they would get a room for a couple of nights and stay there or they'd just eat somewhere they could afford because they had money.
But we still had a nice crowd.

Then Heaven started pouring.
Now we've been blessed lately anyway. A Girl Scout Troop is providing next week's meal and God has blessed us with some some unexpected financial resources.
But it opened up tonight.
In the middle of cooking, I got a call from Robert Boggs and Phil Marion. They work for BB&T and had a cookout today. They'd cooked a whole pig and had half of it left. They wanted to know if I could serve it tonight. I told them I was already set for tonight but I could freeze it and use it later. They said they'd bring it to us in a little bit.
About 8:20 they rolled up on Market St. pulling the pig cooker behind them! I sent some folks to go take care of it and do whatever they had to to freeze it.
They all came back saying"man, that's good. It's really good.", which made me wonder how much made it into the freezer. But we got 7 aluminum pans of pork that came right off the hog and we are very grateful to Phil and Robert for thinking of us. Robert's son is the J.BOGGS you see listed every week. Oh, they also gave us some potato salad, cole slaw, and hush puppies that we used tonight.

So we get to the 2nd stop and we're serving it out as fast as we can and then I see people I don't recognize walking up with stuff in their hands. Then I see a guy named James that I do recognize and a kid from Hanover named Adam that I know. They've got a cooler of sodas, a cookie tray, crackers and all kinds of other stuff and they just start setting it down with our stuff to be passed out with the rest of the meal. They were a young guys bible study from Global River Church and they were just bringing the stuff down for the Mercy House. How great is that? They stayed and hung out and we shared prayer together at the end.

By the end of the night , we were literally having to get out the way so God could bless us with His abundant and inexhaustable resources in ways we could never see coming.
We literally could have cooked nothing and still fed everybody. The 1st stop would have gotten the chicken and the 2nd could've had the pork. How cool would that 've been! I don't know if my faith is taking me to that step yet, though.
Check this menu out:
BBQ CHICKEN
SWEET POTATOES
CORN ON THE COB
CHEESED-UP SOUR CREAMED MASHED POTATOES
POTATO SALAD
COLE SLAW
HUSH PUPPIES
WHITE BREAD
SWEET TEA / WATER
SODAS
wow.

Steve Ledger is a great guy. His son Blake comes every week and Steve picks him up. But he doesn't just pick him up and leave. He gets to the second stop as we're packing up and helps us do that. Then he goes back to the church with us and helps unload and wipe down coolers and whatever else has to be done. THEN he and Blake go underneath with me and help put up tables and coolers., which is a HUGE help to me at that time of the night 'cause most people have adios'ed (and that's fine) and it gets me out a little earlier than I might have otherwise. He's a great guy for a ton of other reasons too, but I speak from experience on the reasons above.

Again - The weekly "Thank you Lord", for Brien and Teresa and their willingness to do what me and teenagers have no desire or ability to do and that's clean up. Hallelujah and Amen for them.

Our pastor Mike Queen saw me at the Center Monday night and said "I plan on coming down and helping y'all tomorrow night."
I said "Come on" but in my head I was already placing even money that he wouldn't make it.
Why?
Because pastors don't have jobs that end at 5 and let them plan stuff to do at night. They're always a phone call away from dropping their plans to go deal with the emergencies of folks in their congregations. But 6:00 came and there he was.
I asked him if he was going to stay throught the 2nd stop and he said yes.

Then the call came at 8:30 and he had to go to the Hospital.

It just comes with the job and Mike and our ministerial staff do it better than anyone.

Having said all that and trying to give as much attention and thanks to all the great folks who are a part this every week, I'll just end with....