WOW!!!

Today at 12 Baskets, we had a local church sponsor the meal. This was our first Saturday meal and WOW was it a success!!!! We fed 50 people today!! The church cooked hot dogs on the grill, soup, and cornbread. The ladies of their church are also learning to crochet so they brought hats and berets for any women that might want them. They also had a lot of milk to hand out and Bibles. As if that wasn't enough, they raised a substantial amount of money for the soup kitchen and gave it to us today. I just stood back in amazement as I watched them scurry around to get things ready. It was kind of weird for me to not do anything because I am so used to working while I am there. Everything went smooth and we had a lot of new people and kids come in.

As I watched them today, I thought about how far this dream has come already. It is so overwhelming to see your dream come true.....If it wasn't for God, none of this would be possible. I am truly overwhelmed by it all.

Oh yeah....they also brought coats for us to hand out.... WOW!!!!!!

"Thank you for the food"

I can't believe it has been over 2 months since I have posted anything...I will try to do better.

Twelve Baskets is continuing to go well. We have been averaging around 30 each Monday. That includes the take outs to the ones that don't have a way or can't come.

Yesterday, I had an interesting message left on my phone from someone who had asked us to bring some food to her because she did not have a way. She does live a little bit out of the way from where we are but I decided we could take her some this time. On one particular call, she left a message and after it she called me and the workers a couple of colorful adjectives and then said, "They won't hear that." and hung up. I let my good friends in the rubber room at work listen to it and they were shocked!!! (As was I...) I wasn't mad about it really...just didn't quite know how to respond to it. My friends gave me some advice about how they would handle the situation if it was them. About 20 minutes later, she called again. I told her that I wanted her to know that I did hear what she said on my voicemail and that we were there to help her. I told her I realize it can get frustrating when I can't answer the phone every time she calls. I was very professional with her and not ugly in any way. She said she understood and hung up. I felt better about it and that I handled it well. Later, you guessed it, she called back two more times. The last time she just wanted to tell me "thank you for the food."

I know when you are involved in a ministry like this, there will be people that try to take advantage of what you are doing. This is my first expierence with this type of situation happening with this ministry. I know it will probably not be the last either. Even though that may happen, the number of people that truly appreciate what we are doing is a blessing!! We may not feed hundreds of people every Monday and that is ok. God knows what we can handle and who needs to be there on what day. We will continue to do what we know God has called us to do and stay faithful!!

A sign on a local church caught my attention the other day and on that particular day, I really needed to see it....God provides all our needs one day at a time. Love it!!!!

I almost forgot to mention.....this Saturday Green Valley Baptist's youth will be coming to serve a special Saturday meal at Twelve Baskets. I am so excited to see another church willing to come out & be part of this ministry.The Alabama Baptist also interviewed me a couple of weeks ago and the story will be in this week's issue!!!

Till next time.....

Still being blessed...

I have got to get back in the swing of updating this thing!!! We went to Disney World last week and took our daughter for her first trip. I must say we all thoroughly enjoyed it!!

The soup kitchen served spaghetti and fed 22 people. The mayor of Attalla sent the Fire Chief to the building to see what all was going on. He said everything looked good to him and to keep on feeding. WHEW!!!!

Yesterday we served chili dogs. We had 25 come to the building and fixed about 15 to go plates so we served around 40. The numbers continue to increase week by week.

Some of you may already know but we are looking at serving on Saturdays as well as Mondays. No other organization feeds on Saturdays. We talked about possibly starting that after September. Tonight, I received a call from someone that works with a local youth group that has done a homeless project. She said they slept in cardboard boxes Saturday night and then got up and went to church on Sunday. I think that idea is awesome and love the reality of it!! Anyway, she told me they wanted to sponsor and work at a meal (on Saturday, of course) and had $350 to donate!!! She said there was another Sunday School class at her church that she thinks has around $200 they wanted to donate! God is SOOOO good!!!!!!! You would think by now I would not be amazed when people call me with this kind of information. Never will I not be amazed by the power and works of our God. He continues to surprise me and show me that He is in control. It helps me know that we are doing the right thing and that He is all up in our business =).

Meal Two

Meal two was a success!! We had double the amount of people as last week. 17 total!! We also took BBQ around the neighborhood. The Gadsden Times also came by and interviewed me. Can't say that I have ever been interviewed before...(except by the State at work and that doesn't count). We asked for suggestions on days to serve next month. The consensus was Saturdays. That is the only day that none else serves a meal. I have been thinking about doing Saturdays from the beginning. That way, anybody that would like to help but can't because they work would be able to. We'll see!!

I also want to say a big thank you to my good friend Lois and SSS. They donated a lot of baby food for the kitchen. Three little babies would like to say thank you to them for their meal yesterday!! :o)

Also thank you to my friend Gracie for my first blog award!!!!!!

Next week's meal.....spaghetti.

Meal one

We did it!! We served our first meal on Monday and loved it!!! We had a family of 5 adults and two small children come to eat. They were very thankful and said they would be back next week and tell everybody they knew about it. We had about 15 church members (not including their children) come to help. We sent 3 groups of 2 out to the neighborhood next door, the projects, and around town to pass out hot dogs and more fliers. What a great response we had!! One group had to come back for more hot dogs!! I also had the opportunity to give food to a homeless man by the interstate. This type of ministry is so close to my heart....I can't believe God has given me the chance to do this.

We had some people tell us they would love to come but they don't have any way to get there. Please be in prayer for a door somewhere to open up that would allow us to pick people up and take them back home. We already have one idea but just be in prayer for that.

While we were giving out food, the Attalla Housing Authority called me and said they had received a flier and they would put our information in their newsletter and pass out more fliers. I also had a woman call me Monday night and tell me that she had missed today's meal but would she still be eligible to come next week. I told her everyone was welcome and to come on!!!

God continues to open doors...a lady called me on Tuesday that is the director of the jail ministries here in town and also works at a local clothes closet. She told me if I would bring some fliers to her, she would be glad to pass them out to the people that came to her place. We also had some more money donated today but I do no know how much yet.

Continue to be in prayer for us. Next week's menu consist of smoked butts, homemade BBQ sauce, slaw, beans, and a dessert. YUM!!!

I can't believe it

Well...the time has arrived. In less than 12 hours, we will be cooking hot dogs, making beans, making tea, and filling up cups with ice. I can not believe it!! Even as I sit here typing, it seems so surreal to me. My dream that I have had for as long as I can remember is coming true. How many people can actually say that? I know that it may not last and may fizzle out but even if it does, I can say I tried!!

We went to the building tonight and did a few last minute things. The place looks great and I can't wait to get there in the morning. Even if no one shows up to eat, we are going to take the hot dogs and hand them out in the neighborhoods.

Please be in prayer for us tomorrow. I will update you as soon as I can.

Twelve Baskets Full is in business!!!! THANK YOU GOD!!!!!!

I can't believe it.....

2 days and counting..

My dad had a much better night last night and actually was able to sleep some. They say the hospital is the hardest place to rest and that is sooo true!!! He had a good day today. Please continue to remember him.

Since my dad is better, my mom, my daughter, and I went and passed out fliers about the soup kitchen. We covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of people. A lot of encouraging words were sent our way as well as people asking about volunteering. We also talked with a member of a church in the community and he said that it was great and that the need was there for something like this. We also had some people want some extra fliers to pass out at their church.

I will leave you with one other God thing. My mom and I have been trying to decide when we would be able to get to the building and clean off the chairs and get them set up. Time is running out you see.....Anyway, we went by the building to take some things there and when I opened the door, I just shook my head. Yep, you guessed it. Chairs were out and leaned up against the tables ready to be folded down.

Oh yeah, I also had $20 more dollars donated today!!

Back off devil!!!

All I have to say is I am glad to be back sitting at my computer. You know they say when you are doing the Lord's work, the devil doesn't like it. I can honestly say that I have now experienced making the devil mad. This whole week has been such an emotional roller coaster for me and my family. My dad was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Long story short, he has an infection in his bloodstream they are treating with IV antibiotics. He also has a bad liver so this makes it even more serious. The devil knows right where to sucker punch me to get me off track with the soup kitchen...my family. I have said over and over this week that the devil better back off because I am mad and I am not going to put up with it but then I would just be right back where he wants me..discouraged, sad, worried, distracted, and stressed (just to name a few). Right now I am pretty good and just got off of the phone with dad's nurse and she said his temp was better and he was ok. Please pray that he continues to improve.

Now, on to the soup kitchen.... After I had the money donated it was time to get to business. How much food to order, where to order it from, etc. I did some calling around and got some prices and decided on a local company to supply the food. I also talked with the pastor from a local church and they wanted to donate all of the chips for the meal. He also said some ladies from his church had been talking about starting a clothes closet at their church. I told him I would like to have one as well so we discussed them possibly using our building for that too. I was very excited after speaking with him. We had talked about getting a sign for out in front of the building. This pastor told me that he had a member in his church that worked for a sign company and gave me his name and number. Another God thing!!

Tuesday, July 28, is the day we took my dad to the ER. I was in there with him until 5 a.m. and they decided to admit him. Right when I walked in the door after picking up Jaelyn that morning, my pastor calls me and asks me how much money I needed to finish buying everything for Monday. Seriously??? I don't even know what day it is at this point, much less about that. He told me that he was sitting in his office at the church and the phone rang. A lady across the street wanted to know about our youth mission trip and other things going on at the church. She told him she wasn't sure why she called the church because she actually had another person's number to call. She had a check for $800 that God was telling her to give to the church. She wanted some of it to go to the youth and some of it to help out people who have been affected by the current economic situation. Needless to say, I cried some more. When I called my mom, I told her that I didn't know if I could handle anymore of the emotional roller coaster we had been on. But, that it seemed like every time we were down, we would get some good news about the soup kitchen. I told her that was God's way of letting us know that even though things were tough right now, He is still in control and everything was going to be ok. I cried some more.

Fast forward to today, July 31. I picked up the first order of food for Twelve Baskets Full!!! 3 cases of hot dogs (300 hot dogs), 6 #10 cans of Pork & Beans, one case of individually wrapped mustard packs, and one case of individually wrapped ketchup. Total $105.48. Not too bad!! The good husband went to Sam's and got the cups, buns, foil, etc. We have had $400 donated so far and still have some left over!!!! Praise the Lord!!!!!

Now you are pretty much caught up with everything that has been going on.

Tomorrow, if my dad is ok, me, my mom, and my daughter are going to pass out the fliers in the community to let people know about us. Actually our first flier recipient is my dad's tech at the hospital tonight. My dad asked him where he was from and where else would he be from but the city where the soup kitchen is located (Attalla). My mom gave him a flier and he said that he told her he would help anyway he could and hoped it went well.

Please keep my dad and our family in your prayers as well as the people we will come in contact with when we pass out the fliers. I can't believe it is only 3 days until we serve our first meal!!!!

What are we gonna do Aunnie???

At Love & Care, we in the "rubber room" have a saying that we use when something is crazy or when we don't know what to do. We got it from my good friend Gracie's little nephew. "What are we gonna do Aunnie?" That is what I have been saying since July 13.

After we looked at the building, now it was time to get down to business. The number one question on my mind as well as what everybody else was asking me was, "Where are you going to get the food from?" My answer - I don't know. I would tell them that two days ago I was trucking right along minding my own business when BAM....God decided he wanted me to do something different. I said He provided the building and He will provide the food. I would not be telling the truth though if I said I never wondered "What am I gonna do Aunnie!!!!" How many do we prepare for, what do we fix, where is this money going to come from, where am I going to get the food, who is going to help me, etc..... Whew!!! So much to think about. After a lot of thinking, we decided on hot dogs for the first meal. Quick, easy, and cheap. A case of hot dogs (100) = $16.90. After I found that out, I felt a lot better!!!

Now, on to when are we going to serve. I had to make sure I would have someone there to help me. My wonderful mom cleans houses and she is off on Mondays. So.....Mondays it is!! That way I know there will be at least one person there besides me :o). We decided to do each Monday in the month of August and see what kind of response we had and then worry about September.

Fast forward to Wednesday, July 22. I met with a wonderful lady at the EBA, Dianne Lowe, to see if she could give me any advice or contact names. When I came out of there, I had about 3 pages of notes: how to become incorporated, bylaws, benefits of being a 501 (c) 3, the possibility of being able to use World Hunger money, getting the church involved. WOW!!! "WHAT AM I GONNA DO AUNNIE!?!?!?!?" I told her I knew this journey would involve all of this eventually and I appreciated all of her help. She is a wonderful, Godly lady and I am lucky to call her my friend. After I got home, to say I was overwhelmed is a little bit of an understatement. I had also had something else come up about the building that worried me a little bit too. Was this the road block I had been waiting for?

I called my good friend Jamie and asked her if she would mind doing the WMU at church that night. I was not in the mood and just frustrated to be honest. I posted on my status on Facebook for people to remember me in prayer. Enter God.....that night I had someone to offer to buy the hot dogs for the first meal and a $100 donation!!!!!! I just cried. Isn't God great!! Even though you know He is, when you experience it first hand, there is no way to describe it! Now I was back on fire and ready to go. No more "What am I gonna do Aunnie?"

Seriously!?!?!?!?!

So I call my preacher and tell him I need to come talk to him. Of course he says ok. I go to his house on the same Monday and give him all of the information. I told him I needed a neutral party to tell me what I needed to be thinking about or any questions to ask. He said the only thing he could think of was to ask about the utilities. Would they want us to pay for some of the bill? I thought hmmmm...maybe that was going to be the catch in this whole thing. We talked a while and ended with prayer. The prayer was either for God to open the door or let it be closed. I went home with my mind spinning!!!!!

The next day my phone rings and it is the man from the building. My first thought was they had changed their mind or something had gone wrong. I answer. Do you know what he asked me? He asked me if we had changed our mind about the building. Huh? It hadn't even been 24 hours since I had talked with him. I told him no but I had just talked with my preacher the night before and we were still trying to sort things out and think. His next words to me were, "Well I already have the power company coming tomorrow to turn the power on." SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!? I asked him about paying the utilities and he told me they would not charge me. To me that was my answer. I have always said if I ask God to show me the answer to something, I need Him to smack me in the face with the answer to make sure I see it. If the power being turned on in the building, not having to pay the bill, and being asked if we had changed our mind wasn't a smack in the face, I don't know what would have been!!! I immediately called my preacher back and told him. For those of you who don't know him, he is never speechless. I can honestly say he was speechless. I believe his words were "Wow." That is about all you can say. We made arrangements to meet at the building on Wednesday and look at it and finalize everything. My husband, little girl, my preacher, and I met the man around 8:30 a.m. to look around. When the door opened, I could not believe it!! It was nothing but a huge open room with a cement floor, tables, chairs, bathrooms, kitchen.... It was PERFECT!!!! Of course my mind had been on overdrive since Monday. One thing I thought about was that I was going to need trays for people to carry their food on. When we went in the kitchen and the man shone the flashlight around because the power wasn't on yet....yep you guessed it...trays!! Probably about 75 of them. Refrigerator - check. Freezer - check. I am telling you, I was in awe of our God!!!! Everything was working out perfectly. We talked to the man and I told him if we were probably just going to start off with one day a week. If the need was there we would do it more if that was ok. He said, "Why would it not be ok" and laughed. He said the only time they had to have the building was once a year for the annual fair and then a weekend for a dinner and that was it. SERIOUSLY!?!?!??! He kept telling me to do whatever it was we wanted to do. The building was just sitting there empty and noone was using it. My husband asked him if they would care if we shared the Gospel. "Why would we care?" was his answer. Again, we were speechless. This was nothing but God working with no other explanation. The only stipulation was that we not say who was letting us use the building because they did not want the recognition. I want to take this time to thank these men and ask you to please remember them in your prayers. Thank God for selfless, loving, giving people!!! Well, now we have a building and pretty much free reign over whatever we want to do so ........now the work begins. Oh yeah, did I tell you that the building happens to be in the city that I had a burden for? Seriously.

The day it all started

Monday, July 13, 2009, started off like any other day. Another day at Love & Care and paperwork. I got into a conversation with someone at work that I really don't talk to that often. For some reason, I kept sitting there. My husband, my daughter, and I have recently gotten back from a family mission trip to Indiana with our church and this person asked me how it went. I told her about my passion to feed people and one day have a soup kitchen. She told me that she had a friend in another city that wanted to do the same thing and a group let her use their building. I had never really thought about someone letting me just use their building. I immediately went back to the office and looked up this group's number in the phone book. I left a message for someone to call me back. It was around 4 p.m. so I figured I would not hear from them until the next day. Around 5:30, a man returns my call. I told him what I was interested in doing and wanted to see if they let people use their building. He said yes. I asked about rent or payment and he told me they would not charge me for feeding the homeless. WHAT!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing. From then on, every question I had, he had an answer: tables and chairs - yep and it will seat up to 600 people; kitchen - yep; bathrooms - yep. I was in shock!! I told him I was thinkng about doing maybe one day a week and then increase to more if needed. No problem. I thanked him so much for calling me back. He said the only reason he had gotten the message was because they were having a meeting there that night. I told him I would get back in touch with him.
WOW!!!! I immediately called my mom and my husband. They could not believe it either. Was this finally it? Was my dream about to become a reality??? I had to talk to my preacher first...

The Dream

I have always wanted a soup kitchen. Why? I don't really know the answer to that. I could use the old cliche "I want to help people" but that is not the only reason. It is really hard to put into words. I have a heart for those less fortunate. God teaches us to take care of others and love them like He loves us. Proverbs 22: 2 says, "Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the maker of them all." (NIV)
I remember the first time I told my husband about my dream. We were riding down the road and I said,"I would love to have a soup kitchen one day." I have to admit that he was surprised by that. Probably because I have never really been a "people" person (even though I am a social worker...I know go figure!!) We have talked about what we would do, what we would serve, how we would decorate, etc.
I told my preacher about a year and a half ago about my passion. I even told him that if I couldn't find a building, I was just going to have to pass out hot dogs from the back of my Tahoe in the neighborhoods around town!! We discussed different scenarios we could do but none of them really caught my attention or ever came to fruition. People at church would talk about the local soup kitchen feeding over 250 meals a day and the need for more help. I would always say,"If someone would give me a building, I could take care of that!!" I have always felt in my heart I would be able to have a soup kichen one day but it just seemed like a dream. There is no way my husband and I could afford to build, buy, or rent a building so I would literally have to have one given to me.....

In the Beginning.....

So....here I am. A victim of blogging..... It is funny how God works things out in your life. If you just sit back and really think about it, it is AMAZING!!! Take this blog for example. Never have I ever thought about writing in a journal much less blogging! But in the past week and a half, God has worked in my life so powerfully, that I thought I needed to be writing it down. I looked at some journals in Wal-Mart and decided against it because I didn't find one that was pretty enough. I have not mentioned this to anybody. Today at Love & Care, my good friend known in the blog world as Gracie said, "You need to start you a blog. People need to see what God is doing in your life." So, here I am....another reason to be on the computer late at night with my husband saying,"Are you ever going to get off of that thing!!"

This blog is to talk about and record my journey as I start to live my passion. It is also to share how wonderful our God is and the blessings that only He is capable of!! That is all I have time for right now as I have dirty laundry calling my name. I will start at the beginning of my story next time.