What is Christmas without family? Jenny and I both agreed that given the choice we’d have loved to spend Christmas with our families. We did the next best thing by volunteering to help the Bonner Gospel Mission serve a delicious Christmas dinner at the local community center. Jenny made some industrial size green bean casseroles and off we went.
I was torn between seeing so many guests who were willing to share Christmas with strangers and the fact that many were having a difficult time with life’s circumstances and welcomed a warm meal. Like us, some couples didn’t have family in the area while others were simply alone and appreciated the company. We met a lot of volunteers from a local church who had a great deal of kindness to share including warm gloves, books, music and the message of God’s love.
Jenny and I were assigned the task of (I love this!) “Volunteer Eaters” because they had enough kitchen help. Our responsibility was to welcome folks in, show them to a seat, get them some food, then sit down and visit with them to give them some company to talk to. Yes, it was a real arm-twister to get me to eat and talk but always the truest servant of my fellow man I laid down my shyness and went right to work. Such sacrifice, such a servants heart, such an appetite.
It was a very merry Christmas for us. Our guests had as much to share with us as we did with them. Selfishly, we came away getting far more than we gave.
Here’s a shot of some of our guests being entertained by Samantha on the guitar.
I met a gentleman named Jean who came for a meal but when he saw the others playing music asked of he could bring in his accordion. The next thing you know we had a jam session going lifting the spirits of the entire room.
