THE KING'S KITCHEN Celebrated 26 weeks!!!

The King's Kitchen reached it's 6th month mark, 26 weeks, with the meal that was delivered July 27th to 43 elderly shut-ins.

What a blessed, and very exciting adventure this has been!!

To recap: It all began with a forum that was held on January 17, 2010 at 4:30 to see how many people would be interest in this ministry. We were stunned when 30 people showed up. At the conclusion of the meeting 23 had signed up: 11 cooks, 2 reserve cooks & 7 delivery people!!

When we met with the Pastor, Deacons & Church staff on January 25th they agreed to stand behind this endeavor for $100 a week for 10 weeks and then see where it had gone and what they would do from there.

On Sunday, January 31st, Mickey & I spoke to both the 8 a.m. & 10:45 a.m. church services about Mickey's vision for this ministry. He showed the aluminum trays and various other supplies that had been purchased to begin. Mickey also shared the desire to eventually be able to obtain and use micro-wave able trays, instead of the aluminum, but that would entail the purchase of a sealing machine which cost around $1700. A special offering was taken in these two services and the total contributed was $3,587.27!!!! I shared that with my post, God Knocks Our Socks Off!!

Today I just wanted to share some pictures with you and then share the wonders and blessings that God has poured out on this ministry.

It is quite a production and takes MANY helping hands which God has supplied. Here we are filling, sealing, and loading the coolers to take the meals out for delivery. This is me, Jimmy is sealing (Jimmy & his wife Nellie also deliver one of the routes) Tim is counting and separating the trays for the various routes. Tim & his wife Jenne also deliver one of the routes. You can see the hands of a woman across the counter. There are several woman there putting the trays into the coolers. You can also see two cakes waiting.



This is quite a busy time and production when we get to this point!!!!

Another shot of this busy time. Sherry (in the orange shirt) is our main cook, helps us prepare all the menu's and does all the shopping for us. She is definitely a mainstay we thank the Lord for each and every week. Assisting her, in the green shirt, is Loretta. Loretta and another woman, Mary deliver one of the routes. Arlene, in the yellow shirt, I'll share about her later.

Another shot of me, Loretta, Arlene & Sherry very busy at work.

This is another shot from another day. At the stove again are Arlene & Sherry. Standing on the far side of the counter are Joi who helps cook one week and runs a weekly route. There are Jimmy & Tim in their posts again. On this side of the counter are Nellie, Mickey & Mary.

Just so you'll know we also have fun!!! This is Sherry's son, Reese. You can see he's all dressed up ready to fight the devil. Sherry also has a daughter, Madison, who blesses us each week. Sorry I don't have a picture :o(

Here is Mickey & Lucy putting the cartons of milk into the coolers. Lucy is the daughter of our Children's Pastor, Jacki, and often comes in to help out.

I don't have pictures of them but this summer Tim & Jenne's two grandchildren, Michael, age 5, & Michele, age 6, have been coming and going on their delivery route. Joi has often had one of her 3 daughters and her son (they range in age from kindergarten to 11 years old) going on the delivery with her. Mary's young pre-teen daughters have come in to help. Frankie, one of our Monday night cooks brings her pre-teen daughter, Jackie who helps in prep work. All these kids are learning and seeing what it is to be serving hands, legs and hearts for Jesus. How very blessed they are!!!!

Now to our numbers!!! Mickey presented this information and report to both church services this past Sunday morning.

To date we have delivered 890 meals. We often have a meal or two left, it's hard to judge and cook exactly, and we just this week placed 23 frozen meals in the Parlor Kitchen to be handed out by the Food Pantry people when someone comes in for a sack of food.

Our average cost per meal for food is $2.25. Including packaging it is $2.73.

Our first delivery on February 9th was to 23 people. Our delivery on July 27th was to 43 people. God is truly blessing and allowing us to grow gradually. We are thankful He has been doing it gradually and we have not been overwhelmed.

Now about Arlene. Here she is the very first time she came to help us, which was June 8th.

Arlene is a beloved school teacher in our town that EVERYONE knows and loves. She is a member of the 1st Baptist Church. She read the article that was run in our newspaper on April 27th and even before school was out for the summer called me and wanted to know if she could volunteer to help us.

Come & help she did and what a joy she has been from day one.

Here are Arlene, Mickey & Sherry on Arlene's last day in King's Kitchen, August 3rd. But she will be helping us any Tuesday they are on vacation and she made us promise to keep her slot open for her next summer. You better believe it will be Arlene.

Part of Mickey & my vision for King's Kitchen, as well as the vision of our Pastor, is to see us cross denominational lines and it become not a ministry of just CAG but a ministry of all Coweta churches and the Body of Christ. Arlene .... you are our first fruits of this vision and dream. We appreciate you and your heart sooo much. Thank you!!!!

I can't close off this report without mentioning the woman from Young at Heart who have furnished us with WONDERFUL desserts for all these weeks. Week after week, after week. We appreciate you and your love so much.....and we know those receiving these meals appreciate your home made delights. Thank you Robbin for heading up this group.

Now, I've saved the best news for last. We have NEVER had to touch one penny of that $1,000 that the Board had committed to us.!!! The people of our congregation have so generously supported this ministry from day one that not one penny of tithes have been used to support it.

We have so very many people to thank for all their effort for this vision and ministry: 1) Our Pastor who believed in it and supported it, 2) the Deacon's who caught the vision, 3) all those who have generously given of their funds to see that it happens week after week, 4) the 8 prep-cooks (3 separate teams) who join us on their assigned Monday evening, 5) the 4 teams of 2 each delivery people who faithfully serve and deliver the meals week after week in their own vehicles, at their own expense, and 6) Sherry who is the mainstay of these tasty meals that are prepared each and every week.

All praise and honor and glory go to our Lord & Savior, JESUS, and our Great God who allows us to be His hands, feet and heart as we reach out to this segment of our community.

What is God calling you to do and putting in your heart? Do it!!!

"Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead," James 2:17, NKJV.