I'll tell about tonight tomorrow. Because it's Thanksgiving ......

I'm thankful .....
......for a God who provides beyond what I could think to ask for.
......for the strange, random yet orchestrated way God sends people to us on Tuesday nights.
......for MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / HAMPTON / NICK / MITCH / PEYSON / MERRITT / SAM /WADE / ELLYN / HALEY / JACK / BETH / JOSEPH / DIANE / TJ / MARK / EBY / CHRISTIAN / J.BOGGS / TWIG / ANNA / BRIEN / TREY / CATHERINE / KEITH / GARY / SUSAN / BETH / WILL / WAYNE / LAURA / KILLER / JOHANNA / LAUREN / JOY / DERRICK / DEREK / THE GROUP OF YOUTH THAT DEREK BROUGHT TO PLAY MUSIC AND HELP SERVE TONIGHT /

......for the folks we get to serve every week.
......for the people who call me and say I'm going to Sam's. Is there anything I can get for you?
......for a church and a church staff that has supported and allowed us to do what we do.
......for whoever that lady in the car was that handed me $950 and said Keep feeding these guys.
......for Berkley Stafford and he knows why.
......for the storage space we have under the Harrelson Center.
......for Twig.
......for Brien, Anna, and Teresa and not for just washing dishes, but also because they are wonderful role models for meeting the needs of others as we feed at both stops.
......for Mitch Cook, Wayne Currie and Steve Leger.
......for Jim Morgan and Gary Mcknight and all the nights they devoted to this when we were just starting. Could not have done it without them.
......for the TURKEY WITH DRESSING / MASHED POTATOES AND GRAVY/ SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE / GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE / CRANBERRY SAUCE / MAC 'N CHEESE / DEVILED EGGS / PUMPKIN PIE / SWEET POTATO PIE / PECAN PIE /
SWEET TEA / WATER that we were able to serve tonight. We also gave out 80 lunch bags for tomorrow with 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, an apple and cookie in them.
.....for Gatorade coolers.
......for the way God keeps the rain off us 99% of the time. Seriously.
......for the church truck.
......for the way God puts his arms around us and keeps us safe every week. We're downtown. At night. In some sketchy places. And always under his wing.
......for Greg Garrett, who loves to fish and provides us with most of our fish on the nights we have FISH FRY!
......for the folks who step up in the summer and fill in for me while I'm off traipsing around on youth group trips and mission trips. Thank you.
.....for Butch and Anne, who live on the other end of the state and still send me checks in the mail for this as part of their missions giving.
......for everyone who has ever come and helped.
......for everyone who has ever donated or provided us with resources.
......and lastly, for Skyler Vigus, Drew McEachern, Kolby Rooks, Jonathan Everette, and Mason Huffman, who stuck it out with me that first freezing winter passing out Hot Chocolate to people standing in line at the St. James Homelss Shelter.

......if you don't believe it, just ask me

I'm a genius. Just a total freakin' genius.

Normally we use round plates. Stuff piles on and runs together.......no big deal.
But it's Thanksgiving. It's a meal with a lot of components and some people don't want this touching that.....I can be sensitive to it once a year.

Divided trays and plates cost more.
Then it hit me.
We have a large stockpile of take-out plates with the hinged lids that we use on rainy nights. The plate part of those are all divided. We could simply cut the lids off. We use the plate part for the meal and........the lid for as a dessert plate!

GENIUS !...........

Random stuff the day of........

Tuesday night is the new Thanksgiving........for us anyway.

I don't know exactly how many will show up to help tonight but I'll take a stab and say 40. I'm fairly sure that would be the most we've ever had help in a night.

A night like tonight wouldn't happen without help from a lot of folks, some who won't be anywhere near us tonight when the feeding begins. Thanks to all the folks I won't be able to thank in person tonight.

Gonna do something new tonight...... Deviled eggs! We'll boil them before folks get there and then set them up at a table and show kids how to make them. I foresee a large mess and someone other than me running that operation.

I think I've got some live background music lined up for tonight. They asked me if I had any Thanksgiving music I wanted them to play. I told them they could run through the Beatles catalog and I wouldn't care. Just play.

Later, g

PHOTOS ! PHOTOS ! PHOTOS !

First stop. We try to be ready here by 7:45 and finish by 8:30. That give us time to clean up, pack up, pray and head to the 2nd stop.

A couple of our regular friends

Condiment Row

It's full blown dark when we get out to serve now.

J.BOGGS and NICK

TOM VARNO and BRIEN

This week's "Picture so nice I had to print it twice".

A moment of rest

Killer,Johanna, Sam, and Elaine

Sam, Maggie, Merritt, Killer and Blake

Peyson talking to George, who is new. Thats's why he's the only one in the picture listening to Peyson. Everyone else knows better.

l

Another kitchen photo

LANEY GIRLS- Chelsea, Ashley, Cassie

CHRISTY and JACK

SAM THE BUTCHER

(Notice how Tyler moves so fast he can't be caught on camera.)

Maggie, Ellyn, Alyssa, Merritt and........Sam?

This is a great photo. Look at the symmetry, the texture, the lighting.

Plus......it's cheese sandwiches!

....Thanksgiving ain't one of them.

My bad.

I had good intentions......

I was going to load new pictures and write about last night.......

I meant to get it done and posted by this morning........

DIDN'T HAPPEN!



ELLEN / ALYSSA / WADE / SAM / J.BOGGS / CHRISTIAN / TYLER / MAGGIE / MERRITT / PEYSON / ELAINE / HALEY / LIZ / TJ / MARK / TWIG / JANE / BRIEN / TERESA / ANNA / LAURA / LAURA'S FRIEND / WAYNE / BLAIK / GEORGE / CHRISTY / JACK / CASSIE / ASHLEY / CASSIE / TOM VARNO / EBY / MO-GAN / CREEEECH! / SARAH

Check out that All-Star lineup!

Wayne Currie provided four cooked Boston Butts and a large pork tenderloin for us tonight. We
pulled the slicer and used it to cut them for sandwiches. We served those the first time through and made baloney and ham sandwiches for seconds. We made a couple of big pans of Baked Beans. Throw some dessert on there and it's the perfect meal leading up to next Tuesday, which is our Thanksgiving dinner.

I made the mistake of getting Teresa to take pictures for me. Now she's realized there's other jobs besides washing dishes. I may never get her back over by the sinks now!

TOM VARNO was in town! Yay! TOM works down in Fla. as an engineer on an oil rig. He was in town for a couple of days and came to see and help us. A great, great, guy. (I don't know what he engineers on the oil rig, but I do know you have to be smart and tough to work there. He is.)

BIG OMISSION FROM LAST WEEK
A lot of shoes were collected for the Guatemala mission trip. Some were left behind and Robin Manning (REPEAT AFTER ME: We love Robin Manning) collected them and brought them down to us to pass out to our friends after they ate. Which is just one more item on the already long list titled Things Robin Manning Has Done To Help Us Out.

David Barkley called me last week like he always does and brought us fruit and vegetables from the County Fair. Appreciate him thinking of us and not letting things get wasted.

I meant to mention those things last week and didn't. Apologies to both. They're too good to us for me to forget their contributions.

Had three new people this week courtesy of Sara Frank. Sara Frank was one of my students at Laney. She has come down and helped at different times ever since. She's a freshman at the Dub now. Some of her friends at Laney needed some service hours and Frank called me about it, to see if they could come join us.
And,what's my answer to just about everything?...........Sure.
So they came and helped - ASHLEY< CASSIE< CHELSEA. I put them in charge of getting sandwiches made and they handled it like champs, along with neverything else they did.
They knew CHRISTIAN, TYLER,and J.BOGGS, who also go to Laney. I was glad to see this. I was starting to think those guys didn't know girls existed, based on the time they spend with each other.

Next week is THANKSGIVING. We go traditional all the way down the line. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, ......
There are times in life when you should experiment and try new things. You should expand your boundaries and shake things up a little. Get a little crazy, maybe. There are times for that. However........

Love Warren Vigus, Hate the Cowpunks!

This is a nice shot. It's got kids, pretty women, guys in ball caps....

Gary, Christy, Catherine, and Benjamin. Nice smiles.

This picture was so nice,

I decided to print it twice.

All right, all right, ......where were we.....

Kids got a night off tonight. Austin Aley contacted me awhile back and asked about his men's group coming and doing it one night. We love when people ask that. The single best way to let people know what we do is to get them down here doing it. So, I said sure, come on.

They came and cooked Chili. Nice, thick, tomatoey red, chili with beans. We had the mandatory toppings-grated cheese, sour cream and (mandatory for us anyway) Texas Pete. Elizabeth Henshaw cooked a bunch of corn bread to go with it. They were good. (If you see her, ask her about why the fire dept. had to come out to the house during the corn bread baking!)

AUSTIN/CHRISTY ALEY TODD/ELIZABETH HENSHAW KEITH/CATHERINE MILLER GARY WINSTEAD
I also had some of the regulars come to help out and show them the ropes:

BRIEN / TERESA / LAURA / ANNA / CHRISTIAN / J.BOGGS / TYLER
and a new person -BO

Christian, J.Boggs, and Tyler are seniors. I asked them to come and help tonight for a couple of reasons.

They really are a huge help every week.

They know what's going on and can explain it.

Most importantly, I've noticed on Mission trips the benefit of having the older High School guys interact and work alongside men of the church. They get great feedback, they make new friends and connections in the church and it lets the men in our church see how great some of our youth group guys are.

Another great thing about new people coming in tonight was it gave me a chance to introduce them to Brien, Teresa, and Anna. They all knew Laura. It was an opportunity to brag on those 4 and tell the others in front of them how much they do, how much they are appreciated and how much I love them. They are Angels. They work and clean and do all the little things I would miss. They are the best. I could fall off the map and nothing would change. If they fell off the map........I don't even like thinking about that.

CHILI CORN BREAD DESSERTS SWEET TEA /WATER

It was a great meal for the weather we had. It had rained all day and looked like it still might so we just transitioned indoors and fed in Fireside Hall for the first stop. Our first stop is right in front of the church and there's a low brick wall encircling the courtyard to sit on. But when it rains, it's not good, so we come indoors. The 2nd stop is standup all the way so a little rain doesn't affect that too much.

The group that came tonight was a lot of fun. They did a great job in the kitchen. We'll take them back anytime.

I just put some photos on here. I accidentally put one of Warren Vigus in the new Cowboys Stadium. I'm gonna leave it, but let me make this perfectly clear......

RANDOM THINGS FROM THE SPRINGSTEEN SHOW:

I can't stand Circus Peanuts and I don't like Orange Slices, but Jeff Tanner does, so I always buy a bag of each for him when we hit the road to see Springsteen. I'm a roasted peanut guy.

We broke our recent tradition of eating at FUEL Pizza before the show and we ate across the street from the arena at a Wild Wing Cafe.

Jeff and I sat almost directly across the arena from Greg and Bruce. We were in 103 and they were in 113. Donald was in 113 off to the left of them. We all had great seats.

Springsteen works harder in his first 2 songs than others do in their whole concert. It's a fact. Look it up.

The couple in front of us almost needed to get a room. It wasn't the guy so much as it was the woman, but she was kinda hot, so what's he gonna do? He just went with it and watched as much of the show as her gyrations and body rubs would allow.

He did the album Born To Run all the way through. hearing those songs in that order made it better than standing alone in a set list.

Started at 8:20 and finished at 11:12. That's 2 hours and 52 minutes of hard work on his part.

I would like to have Max Weinberg's cardio. He gets no break between songs and he's drumming the whole time. I'll bet he he could kill a stress test.
One of the amazing things to do is watch Max when he drums. He never takes his eyes off The Boss. Never. Nothing is set in stone so he has to be ready for a signal. a shout, a glance, whatever.....he's got to be prepared. His gig with Conan has got to be a piece of cake compared to concerts.

Everybody can do a "Greg Garrett at a Springsteen concert" impersonation. Just do this: Put your hands in your pockets, lean forward slightly and squint. Hold that position for 2 hrs. and 52 minutes. Slightly nod your head every 8 minutes or so and you've nailed it.

The lady beside me had 3 dance moves and they were all variations of having her arms out in front of her. FIRST MOVE: "Climbing the tree"- Start with one arm high, one arm low then start alternating back and forth while leaning from side to side at the waist.

SECOND MOVE: "Milking a tall cow" -Looks like it sounds, like she was standing up milking a tall cow.

THIRD MOVE: "Ooh,ooh, I know the answer" Put your head down and shoot your right in the air in front of you, reverse and repeat with left hand. Repeat over and over.

more later.............. g

"Mister, I ain't a boy, no, I'm a man and I believe in a Promised Land"

Look busy. The Boss is coming!

The menu for tonight is:

HAMBURGER STEAK

MASHED POTATOES

GREEN BEANS

DINNER ROLLS

DESSERT

SWEET TEA/WATER



That's a good meal on a lot of levels.
Nutritionally it covers the bases.
There are lots of things for people to do in the kitchen
It's also comfort food top to bottom. It's warm and it fills.

I'm not going to be there tonight.
I'm leaving for a spiritual retreat of silence and fasting to prepare ........ man. I couldn't even type that with a straight face!

I'm going to Charlotte to see Springsteen!

I know how how much he looks forward to seeing me when he's in NC so I try to catch him when he comes around. Going up there with the regulars-Greg, Bruce, Jeff, and Donald. Think we're folding Vic into the mix this year.

Bolting from school about 11:30 so we can get on the road about 12. We want to get up there and get together in time to hang out for a couple of hours before we hit the arena. Donald's coming in from Ashebore and we're in two separate rides leaving at different times. There's not a lot of chance to talk and cut up during the show so you got to get in before and after.

We're probably gonna roll back tonight and as tough as that seems, sometimes it's almost the best part. You play all the songs he didn't and just talk about the show and whatever else comes up. Some pretty serious things get discussed at 2 in the morning on HWY 74. Some times when I've laughed the hardest have been on the return drive, also. (SEE- Bruce Lennon and COOKOUT, Jeff Tanner and women, Greg Garrett and me talking about Bruce and Jeff).

I'm exited. Not outwardly, because that ain't me, but I'm ready.

I'll let you know how it goes.

g

"Cause tramps like us , baby we were born to run."