Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving wrapup

100 + fed.
Almost 50 people helping.
82 lunch bags passed out.
80 pairs of new socks distributed.
Coats, hoodies and shirts taken away.

It was a great Thanksgiving Tuesday night.

Since it was a holiday and a big meal. we served inside. We put place settings on the table instead of just passing out cutlery in line and after they came through the line and got food we had people walk them to their seat and ask them what they wanted to drink and what type of dessert they wanted, then got it for them.It was a nice change of pace to be able to do those little things for them in a nice relaxed setting.

TURKEY  /  HAM  /  DRESSING  /  MASHED POTATOES  /  GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE  /  SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE  /  ROLLS  /  DESSERT  /  SWEET TEA  /  WATER

The lunch bags had 2 SANDWICHES  /  CHIPS  /  SWEET 

We wound up cooking 12 turkeys (4 fried, 8 grilled). We had 16 donated, so we have a head start on Christmas. All of them were graciously obtained and donated by folks willing to help and be a part of Tuesday night. Several folks bought and donated pies and desserts for us to use also. Thank you to everyone who helped us with these gifts.

LONDON  /  SHAUN  /  LUKE  /  CHASE  /  ALYSSA  /  SUMMER  /  SYDNEY  /  RACHEL  /  CAROLINE  /  DAVE  /  JENNA  /  ALENA /  DON  /  ALEXIS  /  CREEEEEECH!  /  BLAKE  /  STEVE  /  TWIG  /  HALEY  /  EMILY  /  WAYNE  /  ELLYN  /  ZUPON!  /  LAURA  /  BRIEN  /  HAMPTON  /  MITCH  / JACK  /  BETH  /  MILLER  /  ANDREW  ///KATRINA  /  CHRISTIAN  /  BAILEY  /  J.BOGGS  /  BRYANNA  /  ALEXIS  /  LANE  /  KILLER  /  CAITLYN  /  ANDY  /  TJ  /  ERIC  /  CANDACE  /  CHARLES  /  ...........
.......are people I give thanks for.

Cutting it short

Amazing amounts of food to be given out by amazing groups of people. That's tonight in a nutshell.
We had enough on hand to serve a meal and, as they left, hand them another meal.
And that's without using the 6 Boston Butts Wayne Currie"s scout Troop donated to us this week. We froze those to best use later on in the month. (if you're keeping score at home, that's 2 consecutive weeks we were blessed with donations of Boston Butts. Incredible)

Menu
Stew Beef/Venison and gravy
Rice
Rolls
Collards
Dessert
Sweet Tea/Water

Twig's son Sprig killed a deer last week and donated a ham and some other pieces to us, so we had a Venison /Stew Beef plan in place for Tuesday night. Then John Liverman brought down enough turkey'n gravy,  fried chicken, mashed potatoes, dressing and collards to feed the first stop. we decided to continue with the original plan and make to-go plates with the stuff John brought and that way they could leave with a plate for lunch tomorrow. We also made about 40 PB&J to give out.
So much food.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

....the first motorcycle rides of their lives!

Tonight was a really cool night because:
1. God was faithful and good, providing us with an abundance of food to share with our friends, like he does every week.
2. We had a chance to distribute clothes to our friends. That's always a great blessing to be able to do.
3. The New Hanover High School National Honor Society came and helped us. I work at New Hanover so I know several of them from classes and FCA. They did a great job and were a lot of fun.
4. I got a visit from someone that was totally unexpected and out of left field- but still great.
5. Tuesday nights are always really cool.
6. One other thing I'll tell you about at the end...............
LONDON / ERICA / MALLORY / ELIZABETH / MARY ANNE / SARA / EMILY HOBBS  / EMILY HILL  /  HANNAH / JESSICA / BRIANNA / ALEXIS /  MARGARET / ELAINE / CECELIA / MACKENZIE / MISSY / ROCHELLE (I've always called her Ms. Bongiornio and she told me last night to call her Rochelle, so....)  / HAYLEY / PAUL / DANIEL / ROBERT / TYLER / SHAUN / SCOTT / ELLYN / WAYNE  C. / TWIG / CHUCK / CHARLES / DON / CREEEEEECH! / MORGZILLA / ALEXIS /  BRYANNA / GRANT / MR. TRAINER / TYLER / JOHANNA / KILLER / MERRITT / WAYNE
Count 'em up. 42, surpassing the record of 41 we had 3 weeks ago.
42!
And we needed every single one of them. (The ones in orange are National Honor Society students and the ones in bold orange are the ones who stayed for both stops.)


We had 6 cooked Boston Butts donated to us by a local men's ministry that was selling them as a fundraiser. We chopped them up and made BBQ sandwiches. A friend of mine called and gave us a pile of Sweet Potatoes and we had a lot of other produce donated to us this week.


MENU
BBQ SANDWICHES
BAKED BEANS
COLE SLAW
SWEET POTATOES w/BROWN SUGAR, CINNAMON & BUTTER
DESSERT
SODAS
SWEET TEA / WATER


We also had bags with an apple and a bag of cookies to take with them as they left.


We had a room full of t-shirts, hoodies. sweatshirts, and sweaters, as well a decent amount of pants and shoes to pass out. We walked them through that first, then served the meal. It was a good night to do this because there was enough people to have in two places doing stuff.
The National Honor students from New Hanover did a fantastic job all night. To their credit, half of the 20 had already been and helped before so they had an idea what was going on. They were quick to jump in. We chopped our own BBQ and made our cole slaw from scratch and they were on it in a flash.


Now for the other thing........
I'm in the kitchen with everybody, just riding herd on the chaos and noise that comes with that many people, when my phone rings.
It's my sister, Sherry.
She says I know you're busy and I don't want to spoil a surprise, but you need to call Wayne (my brother who lives in Fayetteville).
I say OK.
Before I can get away and call him, he calls me.
Where are you at? he says.
I'm at the church. Why?
Cause I'm in Wilmington looking for you!
????????????????????????????????????


Surprised would be one way to describe me.
Shocked out of my socks would be a better one.
Wayne and I are a year and a half apart in age and light years apart in personality.And not in a bad way. Just different.
Most people don't even know I have a brother.


We get along fine, but don't spend much time together outside of holidays and family reunions.
So for him to ride 100 miles on a motorcycle to see me.........not something I would expect.


 It was good to see him. He'd heard my sister talk about when she came to help a couple of months ago and wanted to come help, too. That, and the fact he wanted to take his motorcycle out on the road.
So he did. He helped at the first stop and headed back after we packed up to go to the Mercy House.
But not before he'd given Creeeeeeech and Morgzilla .......


Wednesday, November 3, 2010

.......When it comes back four seconds!

LONDON / LUKE / BRETT / SHAUN / SAMMY / ERICA / MALLORY / ZUPON! / ELLYN / TWIG / MITCH / HAMPTON / J. BOGGS / CREEEEECH! / ALEXANDRA / BLAKE / STEVE / DAVID / JENNA / T.J. / MARK /  CHARLES / LUKE / BRIEN / IAN / DON (#24) /  .....got out in the chill last night night and put Faith into action and Love onto a plate for people who needed both.


GRILLED CHEESE
HOMEMADE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
FRIED FISH
FRIED SCALLOPS
DESSERT
SWEET TEA / WATER


Twig made the call for the grilled cheese and soup tonight. I'd made about 5 dictatorial decisions in a row for meals so I was glad to hand it off this week. I got a call late in the afternoon that someone had a pan of freshly cooked spots and hush puppies for us. Then when I got downtown I remembered we had some scallops we had been sitting for a while, so I pulled them out (5 gallon-size Zip-Locs) and we had them tonight, too. It is always amazing and humbling to see how much God is capable of putting in our hands to distribute each week. Last week, fried shrimp. Tonight , spots and scallops.
How wild is that for a feeding ministry to be able to do? 
It doesn't go unnoticed by our friends either. They comment often on the variety they see and we always give the credit back to God and his graciousness. 


There has a been a nice response to the boxes at the Activity Center asking for coat and clothing donations. We're going to distribute them next week.
We'd like to put together a package deal of a toboggan, a pair of socks and a pair of gloves, if we can come up with enough.


We're rearranging some of our storage downtown to make things more efficient and a little easier at the end of the night.


Having the spots last night reminded me that we haven't had a FISH FRY in a while. I'd like to, it's just a matter of can we fit one in now that the Holiday season is on top of us. We'll see.


Don Vigus and I have been working on a plan for a Spring Break Mission Trip with the High School kids that come and help on Tuesday nights. The current thought is to go to New York City and spend 3-4 days plugged in to some homeless/food distribution programs up there. Let you know more as it develops.


Had 45 people in line at the first stop last night when we said the Blessing. That number will go up as it gets colder.


Fixed 10 gallons of homemade chicken soup last night. Went through about half of it, so now we have 5 gallons ready to be used another week. We're smart like that.

It's about time to start switching Sweet Tea for Hot Chocolate. I've never drank one cup of coffee in my life, but I've drunk enough Hot Chocolate to float a battleship. Love the stuff. I like to dunk graham crackers in it. Don't know where that came from but I've done it ever since I can remember.

FOOD JOKE
How do you know when a clock is hungry?...........

Here's the view if you're next in line

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