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.