The Interfaith Luncheon

It was the third Sunday of the month and we were at St. Mark's Lutheran Church serving lunch this week. Sue Ferguson cooked up some vegetable lasagna for the folks and we added salad and dessert to make a nice lunch for a hot day. We had about 65 people in attendance for lunch and for the first time in several months we didn't have a lot of extra food left over. Everyone got a generous portion and had cookies and chocolate pudding for dessert.

Muriel Roderick and Shirley helped out in the kitchen and Amanda Duntz and I served in the dining room. There is always room for more volunteers to come out and help. Drop in if you are free on any given month. The cooks usually get there by 11:30 a.m. or noon and the rest of the crew usually comes in by 12:30 p.m. to set up tables and get everything ready to serve. f there are a lot of people, we usually have some time to sit and chat. At 1:30 p.m. we invite everyone in and at 2:00 p.m. we begin by greeting the guests and offering up a prayer. By 2:30 p.m. everything has been served and seconds offered. Around 2:45 p.m. we begin cleaning up. We finished up about 3:20 p.m. this week but with a couple more people we usually are out of there shortly after 3:00 p.m.

It is a great ministry. My heart was touched this week when one of the woman called me aside and thanked me. Last month she had asked for prayers for her mother who was having surgery. This month she was so excited to tell me everything went well. Although we don't push our faith on the folks, they know why we are there and what we are doing. One other young woman took me aside and told me that quite a few of the folks were upset and dealing with two recent deaths in the community. I was able to make reference to it in my prayer and she thanked me afterwards.

This ministry started off as one that fed the hungry but it has become an extension of our ministry in ways we never imagined. As we get to know some of the people, we have had the opportunity to pray with them and meet their needs. Who knows? Some of them may even begin worshiping with us down the road. The best part of it all is that we can feel the hand of God on our shoulders as we minister to "the least of these."


Cal