Anyone can be Great!
I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make tonight’s meal a success! Although the preparation of the frybread was yet another adventure, the meal was very well received and ran very smoothly. I can’t say enough how wonderful it is to work with all of you to serve our neighbors at Matt Talbot. There were many fun moments tonight, from the American Indian gentlemen who jovially poked some fun at our frybread, to the sweetheart in the high chair with ice cream running down her chin, to the opportunity to learn some sign language from the four hearing impaired guests who shared the meal with us – I cherish so much about this experience. Thank you for making it possible!
Switching gears a bit, I have been in touch with Pastor William Barth of Nebraska Prison Ministries (NPM). After a brief introduction about our group and our interests in serving others, I inquired how A Place at the Table might be of service to the imprisoned, indicating that we might be particularly interested in volunteering in some way at the women’s prison in York (including an idea about a prison garden to feed the homeless), since it is in our local area. He is willing to explore the possibility of facilitating such a partnership and has offered to meet with us as a group to discuss NPM, and particularly a new reentry/aftercare program that gaining some momentum in Nebraska. He indicated that he would also like us to get in touch with a Ms. Lauri Westfall from Grand Island who is our local Operations Chief for this program in central Nebraska.
Finding a way to serve the imprisoned seems like a natural growth of our mission and I would very much like to invite Pastor Barth to meet with our group. I would like to find a time and place where many of us could commit to be present to explore this with him. If this interests you, please let me know so that I can gauge interest in this mission before I commit to a meeting. I understand that “going inside” might be uncomfortable or even frightening to some, and I want to be sensitive to that. But I also know that I feel driven to seek out those on the margins of society and I personally am willing to stretch past the unease I will undoubtedly feel. I hope some of you will be as well.
Lastly, the last couple of days have been historic for any number of reasons. Yesterday, Dr. Martin Luther King would have turned 80 years old, and today marked a new era in American politics. I am reminded of a rather famous quote by King that continues to inspire me, and I’d like to share it with you:
“Anyone can be great because everyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
I believe we can create opportunities not only for we ourselves to serve, but we can facilitate those same opportunities for others to serve those less fortunate than themselves, and in doing so we might all find a bit more wholeness within ourselves. Please let me know if you’d like to join me in meeting with Pastor Barth.
Namasté.
Tags: Kitchen