Tuesday Nights: ....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.