A full day of service

Saturday we continued the tradition I began when we arrived in Texas: I turn off the alarms on Friday night and we sleep in on Saturday. It was after 8 when we got up. I went to the hall to get coffee and Evelyn finished the preparation of her dessert for the golf party this afternoon. We left for the “Feast of Sharing” at 11:15. This is a large free meal catered by HEB, the Texas grocery store chain, at more than 20 locations in Texas and northern Mexico. It was no doubt begun as a way to provide food for the needy but has become a large event for everyone. We went to volunteer serving as did hundreds of others. In fact, the time slot from 10 through noon was served by people from the park where I preach. We were to serve from noon to 2:30. We don’t know how many were actually served but do know that last year food was prepared for 5,000. The event was as well organized as it could be with so many to serve. We were to be table runners, people who took the meals to the tables. The tables were about 75 feet long on both sides of the large hall. People are brought in and seated. Then we took plates filled with ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and a roll. I carried 6 or more plates in a large tray to the tables, and Evelyn served them to the people. Others brought milk or sodas to them and still others served apple pie. This was all free from HEB. The original owner of the chain was a Christian who wanted to give back to the needy public who supported his establishment. At about 1 o’clock there were so many people serving food that we could hardly find a table where we could give ours away. We stopped and went outside where a band was playing. We danced once and then decided to leave. Normally we serve for an hour more but saw no reason to stand in a crowd holding food that was cooling because we couldn’t give it away. We stopped on the way home to see about getting a mirror in our bathroom re-silvered and came home. I washed the car while Evelyn rested before walking to the hall for the golf club party at 3. We sat with friends and drank beer while eating hors doerves. We were entitled to a meal that had been prepared but couldn’t because we had to be in Mercedes to join members of the church to go caroling. We went clear to Harlingen and then back to Weslaco. We caroled 8 shut ins before going to a restaurant for dinner. We didn’t arrive there until 8 but had a nice dinner later than we like to eat. This was the first real meal I had eaten today. Ironically all week I had been apprehensive about eating too much, having 3 meals scheduled. We enjoyed serving and praising our Lord as always