Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!
We pray everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving with friends and families.
We had an incredible Thanksgiving feast with the homeless in New Orleans this past Sunday! Once again, God showed up big time! The weather said 100% chance of rain. I had many people asking me if we were going to cancel, but that is not an easy thing to do. My response was that if Joshua can make the sun stand still and Elijah can tell the rain to stop and start, we can too. We prayed and believed that it would turn out to be a beautiful day despite what the weather people were saying. It rained on us all the way to New Orleans, but as soon as we drove up on the outreach site and got out of the truck, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was definitely a blessing from God!! He is so faithful if we would just trust Him and believe!!!
We had over 60 amazing volunteers that kept busy preparing, serving, making brown bag sandwich meals for later, praying with people, talking with them, passing out books, etc. We went through 186 plates and had to dig out the extra bowls and saucers. We believe that we served approximately 160 homeless. We also passed out coats, blankets and socks.
We had 6 tables of food (we normally have 2-3). The food was amazing: turkey, ham, dressing, seafood dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, giblet gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, fresh cranberry sauce, mac & cheese, pasta dishes, jambalaya, pies, cookies, holiday bread, cupcakes, fresh fruit, cookie pies, crackers, chips, bread and drinks. There was so much food there, I may have left something out. Believe me, every one of our guests walked away full!!!
We also had a poster board being passed around that our guests could write on there something they were thankful for (see picture below). It was a wonderful outreach and so heartwarming to see these precious people eating, visiting, and laughing/talking with everyone just like one big happy family gathering. All of the outreaches have been great, but I would have to say this was one of my favorites. It was just such a beautiful day and everyone was laughing, smiling and just having a great time. I can't wait for the Christmas outreach!!!
I would like to ask everyone to please add the homeless to your prayer list. The cold weather is coming (or is pretty much here) and despite what you hear, there is not enough room in the shelters for everyone. The City is doing a pretty good job at getting some of them off the streets and in apartments, but with the cold weather coming across the nation, a lot of the homeless in the northern states are migrating here. There is always an increase in the homeless population this time of the year.
Cliff and I want to thank everyone that participated in this outreach whether by prayer or serving. We had a lot of new volunteers that served and from the feedback I have gotten, they all had an awesome experience and will come back. We thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts and with our sincere gratitude for your help. We cannot do this without all of you!!! It takes teamwork to have a successful outreach and we truly believe we have the best volunteers in the world. They all just jump in and serve with smiling faces. We love you all!!! And, the homeless appreciate you (as most of you found out). And, most of all, I know it puts a smile on our Heavenly Father's face to see His children work together to make someone else's life a little bit better.
