This is one in a series of blogs telling the story of my quest to try 40 new things before I turn 40 in March. You can read all of the entries using the label 40 4 40.
It's been a busy day!! After walking my first 5k this morning, I came home, started making rolls (they rose while I was gone this time), and took a shower. I also laid in the grass in the backyard with Slugger.
Then, I drove over to Thompson Chapel UMC. Technically, this is not my church. But, this church and my church are in the process of possibly merging. My church is dying and their church is growing out of their building. It's really a win-win except for the incredible differences in our congregations!!
TCUMC is not in a very good area of Fort Worth. They have a community that needs serving. So today, they served a thanksgiving meal to their community, and I helped. I have never done such a thing before and really didn't feel like leaving the house again, but I did it anyway. Admittedly, partly because it'd be a new thing!
I had told the coordinator that I wouldn't be there until midway through the meal, but that I'd be happy to stay and clean up. They started serving at 11am and I got there about 12:30pm. They planned to serve until 2pm. I started out by relieving some literal servers, dishing out the corn casserole (it looked like corn mush but I didn't call it that out loud!) and macaroni & cheese. They were already almost out of desserts - no pie left!
I didn't count how many people I served. Which is okay, because some of them were actually helpers that I just didn't know, since most of the workers were from TCUMC. By about 1:15pm there were only two of us still serving and they were starting to clean up the table area. We served a handful more while we also continued to clean up and "downsize" as the main kitchen lady (probably should have asked her name!) called it. Everyone was gone by 2pm except a couple ladies and a couple men. I am pretty sure those ladies had their own way of doing stuff - you know those church lady types :) so I thanked them and left.
Overall it wasn't all that exciting. Exciting doesn't seem like the right word. I wasn't there for very long and besides stacking chairs, I don't feel like I actually DID anything!! When we merge, I think the plan is to keep their church building, so I hope we'll get the chance again next year. Or Christmas?? I'll have to ask!!
The good news is that it was a positive experience and I hope to do it again. My church hosts a weekly meal of hot dogs for the neighborhood. It is on my list to go. One of these days...
Tomorrow I do #16!!!
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