I went to help out at our church’s soup kitchen last Saturday, not sure what I could do, but figured they could use an extra hand. As always I discovered that when giving, you get.
I arrived at 9:00 and people were already lined up outside, waiting. The kitchen crew was in full gear, cooks stirring pots of beans, dishwashers cleaning trays, a team assembling bags of fresh fruit and rolls that the soup kitchen guests can take with them, sandwich makers cutting slices of bread, waiters setting tables.
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Marilyn will let you know,” I was told. Marilyn’s the genius behind this operation. She works all day on Friday, preparing, and then on Saturdays she puts the wheels into motion.
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We gathered in a circle and our pastor Kate led us in a prayer. We prayed for the guests, prayed for the food they were about to eat and prayed for us, the helpers.
“You stay out here,” Marilyn told me. “You can work the floor.” That meant I was supposed to re-set the tables when people left, cleaning off the tables.
“Good,” I said. I hoped I’d meet some of the guests.
The next hour and a half flew. Some two hundred people showed up. We were bussing tables left and right, fetching new napkins, more forks, cleaning off plates, dumping the compostable stuff in the compost bin.
I hardly had a moment to chat with any guests. I was running off my feet.
It was only toward the end of what must have been our third or fourth seating. Greg was at one table. I recognized him from worship, one of the few guests who comes to Sunday services.
“Hi, Greg,” I said. “How have you been?”
He’d had a good week he told me, explaining that he goes to several twelve-step meetings throughout the city. Even spoke at one. “What did you tell them?” I asked.
“That Jesus is my friend,” he said, beaming. “I wanted them to know that. You know that’s what Jesus told the disciples. He called them friends. That’s what He calls all of us.”
The closing bell was ringing and it was time to clean off the tables. I got out the sponge and wrung the excess water from it, then started scrubbing, glad to be with some new friends.
