....... glad I could help!

I just put up last week's post. I wrote it last week and saved it, thinking I would come back and add more. So much for that plan. I swear, if I don't do it Tuesday night after everybody leaves, the likelihood of it even getting done drops below 25%.

So scroll down and read last week's and then come back and finish this one. I'll wait.






Good.


It's like I told everybody before we went to the 2nd stop.
I love the nights when a plan comes together.

Too bad tonight wasn't one of them.


Tonight was FISH FRY. It's a big kind of extravaganza thing. We got hot oil, stand-alone burners roaring, people making cole slaw, people making tartar sauce, hush puppies being dropped in hot grease,......lots of balls in the air at one time. And we don't do it often enough for the youth to remember or get good at it, there's different people helping each time....it's always an adventure even when everything goes right. Then nights like this, when we get thrown curve balls, make it even more adventurous.


We got started and things were going OTAY .... and then it started to sprinkle. We moved the hush puppies under the overhang but kept doing fish out in the open. Then it started to just flat out rain. I left the cooks (more about them later) and went inside to set a new plan for how we were going to serve. Normally we just bring them in to Fireside Hall and serve them at the tables and it's actually easier than serving outside like we normally do. But there was already a group having a function in there. So we switched to the Youth Room where all the couches and easy chairs are. We made the plates in the kitchen and then passed them out to the guys in there. We fixed their drinks and brought them to them.

For the second stop we just made up all the plates and took a few people there to pass them out and pass out sweet tea while the rest stayed behind and cleaned up.

I'm flying through this because I want to tell y'all about how great everybody did tonight.

People like:

WAYNE CURRIE


GREG GARRETT

ANNA TOLAR


TERESA BLAND

BRIEN CAMPBELL

HAMPTON COOK

MITCH COOK

HAYLEY UPTON

MORGAN McKNIGHT

TOM HODGES

BARBARA HODGES

CONNIE ALLEGOOD

TYLER BORDEAUX

DUSTIN EBY

KELSEY CREEEEEEECH! (couldn't resist)

MERRITT HUNT

BLAKE LEGER

STEVE LEGER

HAYDEN

GARY WILCOX



MENU


FRIED FISH

HUSH PUPPIES
CORN ON THE COB
COLE SLAW
ASSORTED DESSERTS
SWEET TEA / WATER

BAG LUNCH TO GO


Everybody did a great job tonight. And I mean a GREAT job. We were cooking in 3 different places at one point. We were feeding in a new room with new challenges. Most of the night I simply told people This is what I need and then left them alone to do it. Without fail they all came through like champs.

This is pretty much how it went tonight:

Teresa and Merritt, Here's 8 heads of cabbage mayo and mix. I need cole slaw.



Hayley. Here's everything you need to make Tartar sauce. Just put it back in the jar.



Mitch. Can you put the corn in the pot and put it on the stove. Start cooking it about 7:10. And put the water for Tea on. Thanks.



Greg and Wayne, here's the breader and fish . Y'all do what you need to.



Tyler, you want to drop hush puppies for me? Greg and Wayne'll show you what to do.



Hayley, I need to serve in the Youth room.Can you make it happen?



Eby, here's peanut butter, there's jelly. Find the bread and make and bag 75 pb&j's for me.



And so on and so on. Plus the infinite number of little things that have to be done throughout the night.

Greg Garrett answered the call for us tonight. To say he is one of my best friends really doesn't explain it well enough, so I won't try. He is the source of our fish on the night we have FISH FRY. He fishes year round and what he doesn't eat for himself he puts up for us. When we have enough...it's time for FISH FRY. He went out over Thanksgiving and killed it, so we cooked that this week. ( About the only time he doesn't catch fish is when I go with him. I take full responsibility for it. I think the fish sense that I'm in it more the boat ride than I am the fishing.) He also came and helped cook the fish tonight, bringing his own burner and tank. We would've been in trouble if he hadn't been there tonight.

Same with Wayne Currie. Between the two of them they got over 100 pieces of fish cooked in bad weather and less than desired conditions. He's an enormous help every week, anyway. Plus, he brought me a jar of pickled shrimp to try. It was good.

Hayley Upton is a phenomenal asset. Why? Because you tell her what you need and she does it. You don't have to go behind her or worry about her finishing it. It'll get done. She proved it all night tonight. (In the business, we call that "pulling a Springsteen".)

Teresa Bland worked her fingers off last night. I'm told that when they were fixing the carryout plates for the second stop, she was putting in the fish, cole slaw, corn, and hush puppies and then one person would put in a dessert and another would do tartar sauce. Made them all look bad.

Brien Campbell simply does any and everything that needs to be done. Doesn't matter where, or what: she just does it and usually because she sees the need, not because she's asked.

Anna Tolar has a gift. In the middle of everything that is going on, where I might tend to get focused on things 3 steps ahead, she doesn't. She sees the opportunity to do something for someone right then. She sees needs that otherwise might get overlooked in the process of "meeting needs". She is probably the most one-on-one relational connector out of all of us. Plus, she never wastes anything.

Tyler Bordeaux, Dustin Eby and Hampton Cook were invaluable last night. If it had to be done right then, or something taken somewhere, or we need this from over there, they were the guys. Tyler got a quick lesson on hush puppy making last night and now has a lifetime to enjoy his new skill.

Merritt Hunt got there early and went hard at it in the kitchen until she left. Thank you, Merritt.

One of the highlights last night was Connie and Barbara coming and sharing their Prayer Shawl(scarf) ministry with us. They and the other ladies in their group make shawls and scarves for groups and write prayers on cards for each one. They take them to the jail and other places where people in need can use them. They made 50+ prayer scarves for our folks. They have about an hour of time invested in each item, not to mention the cards. Our folks were pretty happy to get them and every single one left wearing theirs. It's cool because they are all shapes and colors and materials. None of them are exactly alike. We're very grateful for what they did and they said they would do it again. They were wonderful.

Last story:
Normally on a rainy night where we bring them inside, I make sure we're good-to-go inside, then I go outside and sit by the sidewalk where they come up. I say hey and tell them we're inside and just go to the door and someone will show you in. I do that for a couple of reasons. One I kinda like being outside on cold rainy nights. It's the "Camp Eckerd" in me. Another one is I like to size up who's coming in and speak to them and set the tone for the night. The biggest one, though, is I just hate to ask someone to go sit out in the rain. So I do it.
But last night I couldn't do it. We weren't as close to being ready as we normally were and I needed to stay downstairs. I asked Mitch Cook if he would take care of it. Hated to do it, but had no choice.
At the second stop he came up said I want to thank you for letting me sit outside tonight.
??????
He said I needed that. I just needed to be out there, and saying hey to everybody as they came was good for me.That was good for me.

Well all right........