the fabulous feast

Yet again one of these hustle and bustle events has blown my mind. We had our first ever fabulous feast last night. We were offereing FREE prime rib, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes and more. Our first reaction was hopefully people will come. But, boy did they. They came by the hundreds...like 200.




This is the first wave of diners - we had a whole group that had to wait in the sanctuary for their turn.

After I kept the crowds calmed and turned an older gentleman down that proclaimed to me...'you sexy' (that's a story in itself). I found a seat at Tomika Clark's table. Tomika's son, Cody, was my special project child my first year here and we created a bond...a trust...that's unexplainable. I sat with her and her children and her sister and felt like I was eating Christmas dinner with my family. We laughed, we joked, she told stories and shared her heart on how much she misses her fiance who is incarcerated. These events have turned out to be so beautiful.

It was truly a fabulous feast. After all the prime rib was gone and the coats and hats given away we locked the door and went back to work at our real job (Santa's workshop) but I felt so blessed to have had that precious time with the Clark family.

Sweet sweet life I live, sweet life.

let me explain this picture...

We have have so many events this season at City Mission.

To name a few...

-tutoring Christmas party

-mentoring Christmas party

-holiday sponsorships

-Ward Christmas appreciation lunch

-family Christmas pictures

-college basketball game

-Urban Arts Christmas fundraiser show

-CMA Christmas party

-Santa Claus picture field trip

-staff Christmas party

-Cooking with Miss J.

-fabulous feast

-CHRISTMAS DELIVERY

-and probably some other red and green celebration...it seems so never ending (just imagine the state of my house, and contents of my fridge considering the last few weeks- not my best showing!)

So amidst this all we are trying to teach the children the importance of Christmas- the truth of the greatest gift of all and why the glitz and glamour exists in the first place. Sometimes, I think we often forget ourselves.

But in the middle of all this hustle and bustle we had the most beauitful of events on Saturday. It was the first time we've ever done this and to be honest I thought to myself wow, just another Saturday event (like the past 6.5 million Saturdays). But, once it got going and families started rolling in I saw the beauty of family and how closely so many of these people feel like my family.

There was an event called HelpPortrait held all over the world on December 12th. Jeremy Coward (i think), a Nashville photographer put out a call to all photographers to do just that- help those in that woudln't normally have family Christas pictures taken. So there was two professional photographers that took family and sibling pictures. Then two professional editors put them on the computer and families got to pick out the pictures they wanted and edit them to their liking- shave off a few pounds (jk...kinda), fix all those dang shirt collars- it was so cool. Many of these families had never done this before and the joy and excitement of doing something new- even from an adult was so fun to be a part of. And, to see these precious families together and recognizing and experiencing this true gift was great. Not to mention these are some of the best looking families EVER. These professional gave something so simple in their eyes that was huge to our families. All ABSOLUTELY FREE. They even got to order prints for FREE. How cool, so very cool. Another Saturday event that I thought would be just another Saturday event that turned out to be a fabulous time to celebrate such deserving people.

This is them editing with Mr. Chris- he was so awesome...so patient...and so did this the ENTIRE DAY.

Just four more days with four more events and then i'll be on a plane straight home (in time for Joy's birthday celebration, I am so lucky)

is this normal?

sometimes I forget to post on here because so much of the day to day i experience is becoming so normal. making dinner for the kiddos before we brush our teeth for bed, trips to the ER wee in the night, those tough conversations that one never wants to have, programs for the holiday seasons coming out of my ears- this is just what i do. i was asked by three people in the last week what is it that you do all day now that you don't teach. i thought about that all day today especially as when i realize i was hungry about 2:00 pm and hadn't stopped for lunch i said to myself what have i been doing all day!

job description of a program director:
send emails- regularly thoughout the day. answer phonecalls of those making donations, wanting to volunteer, and already volunteering during our weekly programs, run around and get neccesary supplies for various events and programs. greet the kids around 3:30 pm to help with homework. prepare lessons and supplies for tutoring on monday and tuesday nights. from 6-8 most evenings of the week at work spending time with the kids i love. i interact with the volunteers to make sure they are doing ok and things are going well as they build relationships with the kids. i often get to teach a little but use my super fast organization and administration skills to get things done fast! i get to spend these evenings with over a 100 kids that i have truly grown to love. during holidays we do big outreaches- for example we have 250 kids sponsored by tons of different people and groups you should see all the spreadsheets at this point in the game. i also lead most events outside the school day. this requires transportation, timing, flyers, and communication and all logistics for things like fundraisers, basketball games, and fun events for the kids.

even reading this myself i wonder how my days fill up but it often feels like i could never stop working and there would still be work to be done. this is how i've come up with my motto for work: sometimes you just have to leave- all the work will never be done!

i'm sure that really cleared things up for you (ha, all four people that read this!). also, i recognize the capitilization and punctuation is awful on this- i'm tired.

sidenote: i just got done with three days of jury duty. It wasn't awful but i wasn't enjoyable. 22 year-old convicted guilty, another life wasted. definitely an experience- add it to my i did it in detroit list.

peace-