Weekend in review (started writing this a long time ago)

I loaded all of these pictures days ago . . .and got busy and forgot to write and post. If you've followed my blog for long, you know that I love Halloween and our neighborhood goes ALL OUT for Halloween. We give out candy to about 1200 folks. 

We do something different with our schedules every year - they've been fishing; they have been pirates; they have been climbing tall ladders to break in but this year . . .this year . . .

we decided to make a play on the fire that burned our house.

At this point, we need to laugh and move on!

I ordered three firefighter costumes from Melissa and Doug. I watched for Amazon to put them on sale.

Firefighter #1 is dumbfounded. He has a piece of hose in each hand and can't figure out how to join them together -- oops!

Firefighter #2 has his hose pointed toward the house. Mark used an old arrow in the hose to make it stiff. Don't you love how they are all wearing their hats?

Firefighter #3 has Harvey (our cat) by the tail and is trying to cram him into a pillowcase to save him (which didn't happen - our neighbor kindly took him to their house). Look at the expression on his face!!

Here is our front door ready for fall.

Last Sunday afternoon, we had Open House at our new building for The Hub. This is where our Outreach ministries happen. The Hub is located at our smaller campus and has grown so much. It started during covid and we would make sandwiches and drop them off in our pastor's driveway (his wife and a friend were delivering sack lunches to folks who couldn't go to shelters to eat lunch). After covid, we ended up hiring the friend and the Outreach ministries have gone wild. The new building is "the store" and our guests/clients/those we help can make an appointment to shop from the shelves. They can have a certain number of each item. This allows folks who are having a hard time to hold on to their dignity. 

We still hand out bags of food each week and I think we are helping about 300 families a week. Mark is one of the truck drivers. They take their pickups to Publix and pick up the food they can't sell and it is often really good stuff - lots of produce and meat and milk. He also takes his pickup truck to the Food Bank and they load it up. 

We have a clothing store where there is no cost but you can shop just like a regular store. Once again, there are limits to how many items you "buy." We have clothes and shoes for everyone in the family plus we also have donated household goods and children's books.

One of our biggest items each week is diapers - both baby and adult.

We offer ESOL classes.

All of this is done with the intention of making relationships, too.

We have worked with a local refugee agency and we help people from all over the world.

We had amazing weather on Sunday.

Under each tent, there are folks with food from their countries. These are our guests. We were able to pay them to make specialties from their own countries and share those delicacies with us.

We even had live music.

Below -- Peggy is on the left. She is our receptionist or as her desk nameplate states, she is our "minister of first impressions." I'm in the middle back and my friend Laura R. is beside me and my friend Laura E. is snapping the selfie (sunglasses). I'm going to be honest -- it is amazing to work with people you actually like to hang out with!

Mark was there somewhere - we saw each other in passing a few times. Volunteering there two mornings a week has made a huge difference in his thoughts on retirement. He has made a ton of friends and he laughs and cuts up with them. One of the wives of one of his buddies calls me "long suffering Lisa" for having to put up with Mark and his craziness. I'm smiling as I type those words. She doesn't say that as an "ugly" saying -- she is laughing when she says it.

The picture above is of one of the newest houses in our neighborhood. They just moved in. If you can't see, you need to zoom in -- two massive skeletons on either side of the walkway and octopus tentacles are coming from their top floor. I literally drove around the block just to take that photo.

Here is our house all aglow with Halloween lights and skeletons.

Mark moved the fire light so that the flames are more on the porch. We realized in this photo that the flames weren't showing up very well.

Let's see . . .questions for you and I would love to read your answers:

1. Do you volunteer to help others during the week?

2. Do you decorate for Halloween?