This week's list

Man, put up a list that shoots people off the face of the earth and you get a big response.
Ask them to pick things from the BIBLE and ...... don't hold your breath. Disappointing, people. Very disappointing.

This week:
Hate to break it to you,but tonight is your last night on the face of this earth (Don't ask why, just roll with me here).
You can go eat your last meal at any eating establishment you want. You can have whatever you want.
Where do you go and What do you eat?

Me? This might change day to day but it's a tossup. PT's or Flaming Amy's would do it for me. Burger, fries, and a Diet Pepsi or Fried Chicken Burrito and chips with queso. I'm not a fancy guy.
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....there are better People than me out there.

The Big Metal Pancake Maker worked like a champ! 2 big ol' "click-clicks" and there's a perfect pancake laying on the griddle. We turned and burned with that thing tonight. I wish I could find something like it that would squeeze out sausage patties that well. We try, but alot of times they come out looking like sausage "balls".

You might say"But Gary, you can buy them already formed into patties".

To which I would reply " That's right, and you can buy Pancakes already made and frozen, but that's not how we roll !
(actually it's because bulk sausage is cheaper.)

Tonight was a really good night. Made alot of food and gave away a lot of food. That's pretty much the definition of a good night. We had pancakes and sausage (and some bacon), pie for dessert and we wrapped some slices of cake and some brownies for folks to take with them and eat later.

The crew tonight was :
Ellen
LouAnne
Jane
Twig
Bryan
Theresa
Pruden
Craig
Ryan
J. Boggs
Jim
me

It's weird...I just counted and it's 12 people but it never seemed like 12 in the kitchen. You'd think that would be crowded, but it never felt that way. And we needed everybody.
I"m always afraid I'll miss someone when I list the people, but I don't think any of them read this, so if I do, they'll never know.

Actually, I don't know who is reading this. Nobody has left any responses( not even to the TWIG contest. C'mon people!), but the hit counter is inching towards 100 so...somebody's looking at it occasionally.
I do know my college roommate Butch has mentioned things he read on here....so, I got that going for me.

Here's one for the "Better Person Than Me" file-
Someone who I have known a long time and has come down to be with us on Tuesday nights once or twice and made some very nice seasonal contributions to us, found some money in a parking lot the other day. Just found it lying there. After some due diligence and not being able to track down an owner, they realized it was theirs to do with as they wanted.
Here's where the 'Better Person Than Me" part kicks in- Instead of going "woo hoo! free money!" they asked a friend that was with them what they should do with it. The friend is a regular helper with us and said "You could give it to help feed the homeless." So they did. We got it tonight.
Was it an insanely huge amount of money?
No.
It was $61. Which is what makes it a great gesture. You could justify keeping $61. How is $61 gonna make a difference anywhere? It would have been very easy to just stash that in the wallet and not see it as something to give away or try to help somebody with. But they did.
Proverbs 18:16 says "A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers them into the presence of the great". I hope my friend enjoys their time in the presence of the Great and recieves a double blessing.

To be honest with you, I find $61 on the street and it's probably "Sweet. Daddy's getting some Nikes."
It's a good thing.....

....and if He does, we'll probably go with His.

Tuesday Night 3/4/08



What a good night. The weather was supposed to be horrible and it might have been horrible somewhere, but we were fine. No rain at all at the first stop, but we saw some drops as we were leaving so we pulled up into the LEC parking deck and made up carryout plates for the next stop. We had spaghetti, salad, bread and cake tonight (see previous blog for how God provided the meal). By the time we got to the Mercy House, it was sprinkling a little bit so we handed out the plates from the back of Twig's truck and poured drinks underneath the porch. A little tight but no problem.



We had about 20 at the first stop and gave out about 48 -50 plates at the second, which is a decent amount when you factor in the weather and the fact that it's the 1st of the month. The 1st of the month is usually a smaller # of people because some get checks and have some money to get off the street for a little while. At least that used to hold true, but in the past year I really haven't noticed a decline at the beginning of a month.



The # helping tonight was a little less than usual, for reasons varied and unknown.


Some I do know:


Pruden was in a wreck Monday. She's OK and doing better than her car. Pray for her.


Theresa was home with her husband who had seen the doctor that day. Pray for them.

Ryan and Ayla had a "Band thing"


Craig comes with Pruden so he wasn't here tonight.


Jim Morgan was recuperating from that strenuous TV interview the day before.


........and everyone else had great reasons, I'm sure.





We ran a 8 man wrecking crew tonight to get it done:


Henry Liverman


Luann Liverman


Ellen Liverman


Tom Hodges


Bryan Campbell


Jane


Twig


Talked to several folks tonight with requests. One gentleman has a money dispute with a local agency he would like to resolve tomorrow. Two others asked for prayer as they try to get to Florida. One of our regular friends has been sober for 21 days and we celebrated that with him and continue to pray for him during the week to be strong and sober. All of our friends on Tuesday night have needs, even if they don't get spoken out loud. If you are able to remember them during the week as you pray, that would be great.



A neat "ripple effect" of Tuesday nights is that Bryan Campbell takes our leftover desserts and sweets with her and distributes them to the clients at The Literacy Council when she volunteers there on Thursdays. It's a small gesture but she says they are very appreciative of it. Thanks to Bryan for being willing to do it.



Another very nice thing was done by Theresa Bland not too long ago. Theresa is the the coordinator for Parent Volunteers in the office at New Hanover High School. She organized a sock drive among the parent volunteers. The socks were specifically for our friends on Tuesday. She didn't even tell me about it until it was underway. We got alot of nice socks. It was very nice of Theresa to do that.

Alot of nice people come and help on Tuesday nights. Feel free to come be one of them.

All right... next week....it's on.
I've been talking about it.
Been wanting to do it.
Trying to find a way to work it in.
After almost a year, it looks like we might actually do........

CHEESEBURGERS!!!!!!
Man,...back in the day,....they were an every other week staple! I loved getting on that old griddle in the kitchen at the AC and cranking 'em out. It's a little more expensive now with bigger numbers, but I think we might be good for next week. ( If we aren't, I'll be one sad sonofagun.)

But that's my plan. God might have a different one.......

g