Today I hired a babysitter for Cate and baby Elijah and took Christopher and the babysitter's sister Moriah down to the soup kitchen. There, we met my friend, Lisa, Lisa's daughter Abigail and another woman from Monday morning bible study. We were ready to serve.

Moriah and I cubed over 60 pounds of potatoes and yams for tomorrow's soup, and Lisa must have chopped an awful lot of celery. Christopher and Abigail were in charge of wrapping cookies and danishes. After about an hour and a half of that, we did a short devotional and then opened up the kitchen for serving. Moriah helped serve soup and sandwiches while Christopher and Abigiail made sure that folks had their pick from the "wall of sweets" and got some juice, milk, or tea.

It's a remarkable operation. Almost all of their operations are based on donations of food from local grocers, who pass on the "past expiration" foods. They somehow manage to put together soups and sandwiches using whatever foods they happen to have on hand. Today was a small day -- probably 50 people or so. We were told it was because they are slower at the beginning of the month when social security and disability checks arrive. Later in the month, it's non-stop for the hour and half that they serve and never any left over.

I love that after just a few times volunteering that Christopher feels comfortable with helping and serving. I talked to the woman in charge and we're going to try to come on some of the afternoons that Christopher has half day at school -- they have more early release days than most of the schools because they go 10 minutes longer per day. On early release days we could make it down there for the serving part, if not the preparation part. I like the idea that Christopher and Cate can begin to learn to serve others in need. It's easy to get into the mentality that you've done your one day of service, and now you're somehow done for the year. My goal is for them to learn that it is an ongoing thing to find others in need, and serve them.