One Of My Favorite Nights

This was the 3rd year that I was a part of the mid-week program at our church. Before I became a staff member I was a volunteer leader for this program. It is a ministry that requires much time, commitment, perseverance, and creativity. The program is offered Wednesday evenings from September until sometime in April to 2 year olds through 5th graders. It takes a team of 10-15 people to pull off, not including the dinner crew.

We began at 5:40 every Wednesday with our team meeting. Dinner was at 6 with up to 70 people eating in our church lobby and from 6:30 to 8:00 we offered programs that included music, drama, crafts, games, and much more.

This team becomes close; we go through many experiences together that create a tight bond. And at the end of the year we come together to celebrate what God has done.

The team dinner is one of my favorite nights of the year. It is a time for me to get to bless, pamper, and show love and appreciation to a team that has worked their tails off, faithfully served, and finished well. I know God is saying "well done my good and faithful servant" to each one of these treasured people.

I had a lot of fun getting the meal ready and as I did so was able to treasure up in my heart the blessing each of these team members is.

I wanted to make it a special evening and so I tried to set a very pretty table for them...


The menu was:

Caesar Salad
Ribeye Steak
Baked Potato
Broccoli Blasted
Iced Tea, Coffee, Water

And for dessert...

Amaretto Cheesecake Berry Trifle

garnished with a white chocolate cross and fanned strawberry

It was so neat to think about each of these wonderful people as I put together their dessert!

One of the small groups in our church volunteers to serve our dinner so that I can enjoy the meal with the team and not be running to and from the kitchen. They are a fun group and the men get really into it and put a white towel over their arm when they come to serve. We joked around and laughed. I had a little bit of steak left that I wanted to wrap up and take home. I teased that it'd better be packaged up in a foil swan.

They returned to the table with this...

What a hoot!

These are the times when I sit back and think "this is what the Body of Christ is supposed to be. Together we serve, love, grow, celebrate and give God the glory." Amen.