I'm watching the 9/11 memorial services as I eat my breakfast before church this morning. Wonderful tributes.
I have been busy in the past few days and come tomorrow, I will have a few projects completed and ready to move on to more. I am now a volunteer at my church coordinating the ministries - that is I am working to help improve communication between the committees. In that capacity our church staff is brainstorming ways to reach out to our community and help others. We are being guided by Christ's mandate to love one another.
Here is what we have been working on: reaching out to our local college students by delivering 1 dozen of homemade cookies to any student that wants them; trying to coordinate a potluck at our church a couple of times a month for the college students and young adults that attend our Sunday Morning Worship.
And there is more that we are working on related to men's and women's ministries, children's ministries, ministries to our senior citizens and so on.
It is a lot of fun working with our church staff and others to bring ministries to our community. Yes, it is fun.
Today we have invited some college students to eat with us for lunch and I have made plenty so that I can invite others as well. This afternoon I will be at the church around 3:30 to make sloppy joes as I am cooking for the youth group. Our middle schoolers and high schoolers meet each Sunday evening for their own worship service complete with band and then they break into their small groups. We are on a very limited budget for food and that is where I come in. We are making simple food, but plenty of it.
Tonight we are having sloppy joes, chips, corn and bar cookies. Next week I am planning on homemade baked mac and cheese with the sides being provided by parents. We will be feeding around 40 to 50 youth along with 15 adults.
If any of you have recipes to feed a crowd on a budget, please let me know. Serving at church is fun when you find a place to serve that is in line with your talents and gifts. Yes even frugal cooking is a talent that can be used in ministry.
What's the lesson here? Find what you like to do and then do it for others.
7 comments:
I mean this in the kindest of ways, but writing that you're watching the 9/11 tributes while you eat your breakfast isn't a nice image. Are the 9/11 tributes entertainment to you?
How you can eat and watch such heartache makes me numb.
Personally, the last thing I'd like to do is eat while people talk about death and destruction.
Know what I mean?
Have a nice day! :) Some budget meals: Chilli with fries & hot dogs, pasta dishes, stir fry meals, pancake dinners, etc...
You sound so busy!
Lovely to read about how you caring about and helping others.
Sft x
@Anonymous:
I was eating my breakfast before going to church. I always watch the news before I go to church. Our community is home to MUSCO corporation. MUSCO is a lighting company and they manufacture lights that are installed in stadiums all over the world. They had mobile trucks at Ground Zero during the 9 months after the attacks helping to light the site so workers could work 24/7. On our town square all day there has been a MUSCO mobile truck and hanging from it is a large flag that they flew on their trucks at ground zero. Our town square has around 1000 little flags that were planted on the grass. Today there was a remembrance service on the square after church and the square was packed.
I went to church and sat near a man whose sister, Mari-Rae Sopper, was killed on the plane that flew into the Pentagon. We prayed for him and his family. In June when we visited D.C. we went to the Pentagon and I found her name on one of the metal benches.
No, I don't find any remembrance of suffering entertainment. But eating a granola bar while sipping a cup of coffee and watching and listening to the names of the dead being read was not entertaining. It was sobering.
I know you are saying this in the kindest way, and perhaps others have misunderstood this, but we all handle sorrow and stress in different ways.
I was hurriedly eating a granola bar before heading out the door to pick up some college students for church.
It is great that you are doing so much volunteer work and have found a match for your talents and heart. My volunteer work right now centers around generating financial support for the library that I use. I love to read and use the library almost exclusively for access to books so I want them to be there for everyone.
I don't know if you've ever come across the More with Less book and there's a More with less cookbook too. Both by Doris Longacre (that's from memory, so i hope that's correct!). Anyway, both books have some recipes and ideas for cooking for larger groups in a frugal way.
I think you would enjoy the more with less book if you've never read it before, it has a lot of people's personal ideas and stories of how they try to live frugally.
@Debs:
Yes, I have heard of the More with Less cookbook. I wrote it about it here. http://thepathtofrugality.blogspot.com/2010/11/three-books-that-have-impacted-my-life.html
@Juhli:
It feels good to do volunteer work and to do it with an organization that you believe in. That is the key to the "heart" of volunteering.
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