The Jesus Banquet

Monday is November 1 and that means that in about 5 1/2 weeks we will be having the second annual Jesus Banquet at the dump.

Last year we planned to feed 400 and believe that when it was all said and done, there were something like 600 meals served. All of this started in early December 2008 when some friends from the Trace Crossing Church in Tupelo called and said that they would like to come and do something for Christmas at the dump. About 7 or 8 folks came to be a part of our regular feeding and then we distributed about 300 Christmas gifts to men, women, and adults. Later that night we sat at my house to talk about how we could make 2009 better. We decided that we would find a way to have a "sit down meal" for everybody. We talked about the parable of Jesus that describes the banquet where the rich man sent his servants into the streets to invite the poor, the lame, and others to his home for a feast. We talked about serving a meal that we would like. Flash forward to 2009 and the first Jesus Banquet was transformed from an idea to a reality. It was an amazing day. There were smiles, special guests like the First Lady, the Vice President, and many others - even Santa Clause. We believe that God smiled on that day.

Now, with just over a month to go, we are busily making plans to make the 2010 Jesus Banquet a very special day. We are moving the banquet across the road to a large soccer field so that we are not encouraging kids to come to a place where they don't belong. We are going to use the same restaurant to perpare the food but, we are going to pre-cook this year so that people are not forced to wait as much as two hours for food. We have 100's of Maji boxes for the kids, we are going to have a gift of soap, shampoo, and other goods for the adults. We are planning to feed at least 1,000. Many special guests will return to be a part of the day and many from the USA will be here to serve side by side with people from the churches of Honduras.

December 8, 2010 is going to be an amazing day.