Friday, December 5, 2008

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

THANKSGIVING, 2008

Thanksgiving this year was different than I have ever experienced. Our church feeds dinner to 1,000 people each year. It takes place at a Mexican Restaurant, owened by a Korean family, here in Riverdale, Maryland.

I arrived early, and was given the task of working with the kitchen staff. My job was to make all of the iced tea and coffee for the guests, and to serve the guests at the tables their beverage of choice.

The day went by very quickly, and I enjoyed meeting so many of these wonderful people. I took one lady's name and phone number and we plan to get together soon.

The whole town board gets involved too, and it was nice to finally be able to put a face with a name, as I have heard nice things about most of them many times.

Besides giving the guests a wonderful meal prepared by the staff, the people have the option of going outside and picking out any warm clothing they choose. Hundreds of warm coats, hats, gloves, and scarves were donated by our church as well as townspeople. The food was donated by several large corporations. We have a man who donates hundreds of loaves of bread, muffins, and bagels to our church every two weeks, and it gets distributed to the needy by our church groups. On Thanksgiving Day, the man appeared and brought with him enough bread for 2,000 people!

Inside the restaurant, live Christian music was being offered by musicians and singers. It was so interesting to see the Hispanic and English speaking people singing together for the glory of Jesus Christ!! Praise the Lord in all things!!

At the end, after all had been cleaned up, I wandered in to my new home, and got served a delicious dinner by my sweet daughter, son in law, and baby grandson. We even had pilgrim hats to wear for the occasion.

We all have so much to be thankful for, and we prayed with thanks as a family for the first time. We were missing Terry that day, but we know he was watchng from above.
A good time was had by all. Thank you, Jesus!
PARKER'S PLACE!!

The Lord has blessed me with a new job in the food industry!

I always knew that if anything happened to Ter before me, I would want to go back to work. I am not the type to sit home and feel sorry for myself. I asked the Lord to show me what He would have me do with my life, and to bless me in it. I asked Jules to help me to update my resume, and so I started my quest to find the perfect job for myself, (if there is such a thing!) I sent out several resumes, and got "semi interviewed" at a very well known catering service here in Riverdale. I did find out later that the caterer wanted to wait to see how the economy was going to affect his business, before he went and hired more people for the holidays.

I know someone who is a consultant for the town, and he knew of a family who wants to open a cafe that will serve "light fare", such as homemade soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts. This just happens to be what I have always specialized in...

I googled the couple and found out their background, and I called them to introduce myself. (you all know how bashful I am....).

I made a coffee date with the wife and we hit it off right away. She is very sweet, and very intelligent. Her family comes first of course, and that impressed me more than the fact that I could become a potential employee.

The same day we met, she took me to the location where her cafe would be built. Right now it is a shell of a building, but she knows alot about building and decorating.
This building is only about 8 blocks from where I live!

I was invited over to her home, which is also close to where I live..) to meet the family. I was very impressed about how much family means to both her and her husband. The fact that they are all Born Again Christians helped to make me feel more comfortable with them.

Right now I am just praising the Lord for bringing me into their path, and looking forward to the day when they break ground, and we will all become one step closer to working and serving at "PARKER'S PLACE". It should happen sometime in January, 2009. Please pray for them (and the staff that she will be hiring.)

Hope to see you there! I promise you won't be disappointed!