Lasagna with a Side of Love

Wow! what a great night we had last night. The church family went up to the shelter to server supper to the people staying there. Our praise team(Refuge) sant for them while they ate. We were supposed to serve 350 people, but I believe we only served about 100. So we have lasagna coming out of our ears. That's okay, it was so good I'd be willing to eat the rest of it myself.

While we were singing, the people just kind of did their own thing as they ate, but there were some that were obviously interested in hearing us sing and let us know. The high point of the night was when this man, named Jimmy came up to us after we had just finished a song. He had in his hand what turned out to be a coffee grain filter thing (not sure exactly what it's called, but you know what I mean). He handed it to us and on it was a poem he had written since staying at the shelter. This is what it said:

O, God of Earth and altar
Bow down and hear our cries
Our Earthly rulers falter
Our people drift and die
The walls of Gold entomb us
The sword of scorn divides
Take not thy thunder from us
But take away our pride

Needless to say, there were some tears shed among the Praise Team. He was very humble and thanked us for coming to sing. As he walked out we began to sing the poem to the tune of amazing grace. He heard us and came back in to listen and said afterwards, "boy I didn't expect that!" He thanked us for blessing them with the songs that we sang, but little did he know that they were the blessing to us as well. I will never forget that.

Afterwards everyone from the congregation there got to spend some time talking to some of the ones that lingered when most had left. We got to hear amazing stories of rescue and survival as the people were using whatever they could to get to a safe place during and after the storm. It was obvious that many of these people's lives were turned toward God because of this storm and they were not ashamed to share that. I was glad that I could be there to listen to them. They were extremely grateful for all that we had done. I believe most of us left feeling blessed to be able to serve these people.

God is Good in so many ways. Amen.