Saturday in the Park

September 2nd rolled around...the launch of our first outreach event. We had set it up to meet in People's Park. You've heard me mention this place in the past. Downtown, there's this open area with picnic tables and wide open space. Its perfect for a picnic. We had spent the night before making turkey sandwiches, homemade hummus and granola and a special mix of limeade and lemonade.

Earlier that week, Andrew and I had met with Carl to ensure that everyone knew about the lunch. We told Abe and Gary and Axel and every one we saw. The response was quite positive. I had called downtown to make sure we could use the space at the park. Brenda, with the Parks and Rec department had asked me to submit an application. We had gone grocery shopping on Friday and prepared the food that day. All seemed to be going according to plan.

Brenda called me on Saturday morning, telling me that she could not permit the use of the park. She claimed that it put the department under too much liability. I prayed hard. I explained to her we had already purchased and made the food. I was not going to relent. Especially after God had provided so much up until that point. Even the night prior to the event, while we were preparing the food, Paul and I went to the church in search of a cooler for the drinks. Had we gotten there five minutes later and on a different day, we would not have gained access to the storage room.

Later that night, Andrew and I had spent a while talking about what God was doing, lifting it up in prayer to the Lord. We both were just excited...amazed that God had brought us this far. We had about 7 people committed to helping out the next day. I smiled at the thought that I barely knew this guy 2 months ago.

I sat on my bed around 10am waiting for Brenda to call me back. I prayed that God would soften her heart. Ten minutes passed with the beating of my heart as the second-counter. My phone rang and she told me that she would permit for this one time...and one time only. I thanked her profusely and got ready for everything.

12:15pm came around pretty soon. We were planning to meet at Paul's at 12:30 to bring all the food over. Right before I left, I caught Andrew online. He told me he would be late...he was in the middle of something. My heart began to tense up. I got to Paul's only to be greeted by a guy who had committed to helping, now saying he wouldn't be able to. I'm pretty sure that there is nothing that frustrates me more than when people do not honor their words. But I expected Satan to try to destroy this. I prayed and headed downtown with the utensils and plates.

We all parked and eventually met up. I was in my mode. I'm sure everyone who knows me knows this mode. Its the "I'm focused, don't bug me" mode. We all got together and prayed quickly and set up the food. There were a few people in the park, but none of the guys we had seen. It was absolutely not what we expected at all. The town was hosting an arts festival, so it was buzzing, just not with the people we had hoped to serve.

Andrew and I took the opportunity to walk around town to look for any familiar faces. No one was around. We walked through the art show, talking about how this wasn't what we expected, but accepted God had a plan.

Shortly after we arrived back at the site, Carl showed up. My heart jumped when I saw him. We talked to him for a while, soon to find out that when he had told us Saturday...he had meant Sunday. I laughed a bit and he advised us to change the date to Sundays. I kept reminding myself to breathe. Ben Wories, a very tall individual with shaggy blonde hair, joined us that day. He brought with him his guitar. Ben and I had gone to New Orleans in the Spring. He started to play and I started to sing. Soon I noticed a guy, biker-looking, but had a soft spirit standing and talking with Andrew. I introduced myself. His name was Carl, but I only remember that now because of what has happened since then. I have this habit of not internalizing names upon first hearing them. He talked with us for a while, thanking me for singing.

The afternoon came to a close. Most of the food was gone, but we had some left over lime-lemon tart stuff. A guy, seemingly a bit off, began to explain the ways of nature. How we just have to make an effort to understand it. He used the wasp populating around the drink cooler as an example. Andrew had had an encounter with bees earlier that summer...some decided it would be fun to fly up his shorts. So he had none of this "understanding" business. He just accepted the insight of the gentleman, but waived it in his mind. Bees sting...stinging hurts...bees hurt. Yeah...logic.

So that afternoon began a switch. We had a couple weeks to figure everything out, but we began to change our outlook. We were going to make an announcement in church that Sunday, work to find a place to serve the following Sunday, and begin to pray for a leadership team to rise up and serve. And in our finite minds, we thought that that was big. Haha...silly us.