The Tuesday night group

Every Tuesday night, the young adult group gathers at our house for food, fellowship and study. When we first started about a year ago, our studies ran about 6 weeks and then we would take off a couple of weeks. Well, this year we started on the first Tuesday of the new year and we've been going strong ever since. We are studying Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and it is taking us a long time. We have found a method that works for us after much trial and error. We actually read a chapter out loud (taking turns) and then we discuss. Then we read another chapter. Most weeks, we cover two chapters. The good thing about meeting for 6 weeks and then taking a break was that I could repeat our menus!! I'm having to come up with more new menus this time. If you have any great recipes that serve 25 people, send them my way!! We've had chicken fingers and homemade mac & cheese and we've had breakfast casseroles and biscuits and bacon. One of their favorite meals is Poppyseed Chicken and sweet and sour green beans and rice. We've had chicken spaghetti and pizza spaghetti and husband's delight. This last week, we grilled 6 pork tenderloins and we had corn pudding and green bean casserole and oriental slaw. We almost always have a salad of some sort every week, too. You can tell by the size of the bowl that we are feeding a lot of folks. I think we fed 23 last Tuesday. On Fat Tuesday, we even made miniature pancakes for dessert with lots of toppings. It has been a little bit harder during Lent because we have two folks who gave up grains, at least one who gave up carbs and several who gave up sweets. We have one person who has Crohn's and one who hates nuts and one who hates cheese. We've learned these things about them as we've gotten to know them better. I try to have at least one thing they can all eat. I know this is a silly picture but the colors were so pretty that I just snapped it. Can you guess what we were having for dessert? There are about 6 friends who have made our desserts each week. They have made trifles and chocolate chip pound cakes and all sorts of cookies. I can never thank them enough for their help!! Since we are in the season of Lent, we have been having fruit every week also for those who gave up desserts. I had failed to line up someone for this last week so I just bought a huge thing of Neapolitan ice cream and some toppings and sliced up a couple of packages of fresh strawberries. Here is the group. Aren't they great looking? It is amazing how much Mark and I have grown to love all of them. It is really funny because we feel like they are "ours" . . .like we feel about some of our own kid's friends. They are all such great young adults. They are smart and funny. When we first started about a year ago, we only had two guys (I think that is right). You can see that we now have a great mix of folks.

This is one of the bonuses of being a middle-aged momma - the resources to host this in our home each week. Goodness, we are blessed!!

Young Adult Workday at the Habitat House

Our church is participating in a Habitat House Lenten build. Our Tuesday night group decided to sign up for this last Saturday. The work day is from 7:30 until 3:30. We were talking while we were eating lunch and this is Trinity UMC's third year in a row to build at least one house - some years we have participated on two builds. This is the house that Trinity is building. I think it is so cute. The habitat houses are all 1100 square feet and this one is a three bedroom two bath house.We dusted the walls and ceilings and applied primer. Here is Kelly with her swiffer. You would not believe how much sheetrock dust there was in this place!!

This is such a cute picture of Cel!! The morning started off cold but warmed up quickly. Cel and Kelly are standing in the kitchen.

The sheetrock dust was about to kill me so I moved outside. Alana (from one of the Trinity Sunday School classes), Carol and I were painting. These are the supports that will go under shelves in the closets and in the pantry. You can see the next door neighbor's house - it is also a Habitat House. I asked our job superintendent about it because that house has such a nice front door. He said that the house was built in a "builder blitz" so there are some extra touches like the fancy front door. We shared our workers with the job superintendent for the house that is being built across the street because they haven't had enough workers. Elisabeth was painting at that house.

This is a horrible picture of me. My hair is pulled back with a hair clasp and I have my glasses perched up on top of my head. It was nice being outside. I got a little sun on my winter white face!! Look at that blue sky behind me. It was truly a gorgeous day.

Kelly joined us outside to help us paint.

One of the Sunday School classes provided lunch. You know that I couldn't write a post without a food description!! They provided turkey or ham sandwiches and lettuce and tomato and pickle. There was a banana in the box and a bag of chips and a homemade dessert. See that white pick-up truck in the background? Our young adult group piled into the back of the truck to eat our lunch.

I think it is so cool that we get the opportunity to participate in providing a HOME for someone!!

still going strong . . .

God continues to amaze me. About a year ago, we started hosting a young adult study in our home . . .and the study still continues. We've studied various things . . .the group has been fluid . . .some of the original participants are in the group . . . God is amazing. We are studying Mere Christianity now and I love hearing every one's opinion. There is a faithful group of servants who make dessert each and every week. I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pictures on Tuesday night. Lori made the desserts this week and she made this amazing homemade King Cake. It had a cream cheese filling (and I LOVE cream cheese). There was not a crumb left at the end of the night. She also made oatmeal cookies and chocolate chocolate-chip pound cake.Sometimes I have centerpieces on the tables . . and sometimes I don't . . .and this group doesn't judge me either way! I will say that I have been pleasantly surprised that some of them do actually notice when there is no centerpiece. They were looking at these flowers on Tuesday night and one of the guys said, "Is that a pickle jar?" Yes, Will - you are observant - my fancy vase is a left over pickle jar!!

Rhonda (who happens to be the mother of one of the young adults) offered to help with the food this last week because she knew that I was working Discovery all weekend. She made two bowls of wonderful salad and she provided the bread and the tea and the salad dressings.

I serve from the top of the stove and the counter tops each week. Here are just a few of the folks serving their plates. Starting at the left - Shay, Keith, Dustin and Kelly.

God is amazing. We love this group of young adults. We average about 20 or so each week and they probably don't know this but they have become "ours" - Mark and I have grown to love each and every one of them. I can't wait to see what work God does in each of their lives and I can't wait to see what He does in this group this year.