Well... if anything has come from the experience of last week, I'd call it a learning lesson. I'm not quite sure how to take that in, or how to seperate my own emotions from the ministry. We are fully aware that some of the people who come to eat, come just for a free meal ticket trying to get anything and everything they can from us, but then there are those who are genuine, thankful, appreciative, and sincerely enjoy the friendship that we've begun to build with them.
The latter group were the ones who stood up for us last week, while the angry crowd started bad talking us because we did not come. I knew there would be some negative feelings from our absence, and really wanted to use that to somehow get a message of GOD from it. I ended up with a decent message to share with the group, how to not rely on 'man' because man will fail you, but GOD will never fail you, as promised: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." -Joshua 1:5
Upon arrival I was shocked to only see a handful of people waiting around, maybe 8-10 guys... actually worried that food would end up being wasted by the end of the night. But as the night set in, the more people rolled in. We ended up feeding about 1/3 of our usual size.
All our guests assured us that they have somewhere to eat during Christmas (next Friday) so they did not expect us to show up... in a way, giving us a "day off".
I was encouraged by a new person, who had just shown up in the area. Afterwards, we spent some time talking with Spike... getting to hear how The Lord has been working in his life. Lisa encountered a woman who'd been observing us week after week, and was moved to offer help for the future, because of our faithfullness. (GOD is too good and never ceases to amaze me when I hear such things!)
I'd consider it an over all good night.
