On Tuesday we had our annual celebration in church where we focus on the vokunteers in the congregation who give freely of their time and energy throughout the year. A red carpet was rolled out for people's arrival and everyone was greeted by hand. We had tried to create an atmosphere that was welcoming and smart with linen tablecloths, candlelight, good atmosphere and an interesting program. Two Caleb prizes were handed out. I think the fifty or so people who came had a good evening.
The two course meal of Chinese food followed by ice cream cake seemed to go down very well. There was some Chinese left at the end of the evening and in the light of my trying to focus my life more on Jesus I thought as it is such a very cold night I would take the Chinese food and some coffee out into town and see if there were any homeless people who could use a good meal. I am not sure that Jesus would have given the leftovers to the poor; I suspect he would have invited them in to the party!
As the evening ended and people headed for home I gathered the remains up. A few people noticed and were interested in what I was doing; two of them said immediately that they too would come. At just after 10pm four of us set off on foot to see if we could find anyone who might be glad of a meal and some hot coffee. The evening was very cold and there was an icy wind whipping our hands and faces. We went to all the likely places we could think of and looked for anyone in need.
The reflective vests which church bought in last year with "I have time" written in Norwegian on them were very useful as conversation openers. The vests gave us some form of authority. As we walked along the main street we were cheered by someone! There were a number of people in town, having been out celebrating Valentine’s day and there were several who wanted to talk to us about what we were doing, all thought it was a great and much needed thing to do but none of them were hungry. In fact we didn't find anyone to give a meal to. It was so cold that it wasn't possible to find anyone sleeping rough.
By the time we had been all over town and it was after 11pm we decided to go to the police station and see if they could use the food. It is better than throwing it away we reasoned. They were very pleased with it and said that they would enjoy it very much!
The four of us, one man and three ladies (one of whom is over 70!) felt that it was time well spent and we shall be doing it again next time there is something to give away. We were in fact surprised that nobody had thought of doing it sooner. There were a couple of jokes made that next time they go to a party with Tracy they better bring their snow suits just in case!
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