Me and my bestie, Sara, enjoying the sunshine during the cookoutOur first guest was a great little guy, a 5th grader who Toby had seen earlier riding his bike and invited to join us. He threw the football with Toby and some other friends who had joined us and seemed to be thrilled to be included with "the big guys." As lunch time progressed we had a steady stream of neighbors grace our yard...some familiar faces that we had met before, and other faces were new. We heard repeatedly how great it was for us to organize this. Two families even mentioned that they have lived here for about 15 years and there had never been anything like this in our neighborhood. Both of these families were so precious to help out...one gave us a $25 Wal-Mart gift card toward the expenses, and the other brought a lemon cake. Both gifts were totally unexpected and a blessing to my heart.
All in all we fed and chatted with about ten neighbors and made a good start at building new friendships. Having prepared to feed close to 100 people, I have to admit in the quiet places of my heart that I was a little disappointed in the turn out. As I drove around this afternoon collecting our signs and balloons, I allowed myself to say it out loud to my Jesus. His answer was sweet and compassionate..."you did what I asked you to do." And that's all I needed to hear. We had a really fun day with Toby's parents (Pop and MiMi visiting from out of town), several friends from west Mobile who were sweet enough to help with the set up and mingling, and several new neighbors. So whatever Jesus' goal was in our hosting this cookout...it looks like we accomplished it. I'm sure He'll reveal the fruit in time and I know it will be good!
No comments:
Post a Comment