I'm Off to See the Wizard!

Over twenty of my co-workers gathered for a farewell luncheon for me this week at our favorite Mexican dive, and it was a great time!  I should have known I was being set up, but I was clueless until Marcia mentioned that the gifts were to be opened in a particular order. *lightbulb*  When I opened the red slippers, I realized we were "off to see the wizard." The amazing part is that all the gag gifts came through donations to the rescue mission (except the yellow brick). . .the Dorothy dress being donated just the day before the party!
  

 Ready to click my heels.

The dress actually fits, though you won't see me wearing it in public!  :)

Follow the yellow brick road!  A real Saginaw brick (painted yellow) that my co-workers signed later.   Love it!
  

The Wicked Witch. . .well, sort of.  ;)

I also received some very thoughtful gifts and cards, and I was completely overwhelmed by their expressions of love.  What a blessing that I've had these eight years serving with such wonderful people at the rescue mission!  

It's not goodbye, just so-long for now.  :)
  

I've Been "Boxed"!

I've been intending to do more blogging lately, but there has been so much going on in our lives over the last month, the most significant event being our upcoming move back to our home state of Kansas.  Another is our recent trip to Pensacola to spend a few days with our children.  More on those later. 


While we were traveling over the last week, I got a text from my co-workers asking if I wanted them to save a few boxes for me for the move.  I replied, "Sure!" and that thought flittered away as quickly as did my text message reply. But instead of just putting a few boxes in my office, I found their "artwork" this morning when I returned to work:

Distressed "employees" in need of  human resource assistance

A box "tree" for decoration

The boxy - not foxy - "H. R. director, wearing a hat, no less

I love my co-workers!  They have always made life at the mission an adventure, and I am going to miss them terribly!  

Letting Our Light Shine

As Christians, we just never know when the world is watching.  We're not always aware of when we are light in the darkness.  A group of us ladies from the rescue mission went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant today, and we apparently made an impression on a gentleman sitting at the next table.  Before he left the restaurant, the man came over and said that he couldn't help but overhear our conversation, and he picked up on our "positive energy."  He wanted to know where a group with this type of "positive energy" worked.  Sharmin, our outspoken "evangelist" told him that the "positive energy" was the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives and that we work at the rescue mission.  She then asked him if he had a church home.  The man responded that he has visited many churches and he sees value in all religions.  Regrettably, we didn't get to share the gospel, but we pray that a spiritual seed was planted in this man's life, so that he will one day come to know that "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name [than Jesus] under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

We Won!!

The City Rescue Mission of Saginaw won a new Toyota mini-van in yesterday's 100 Cars for Good contest!  It was a lot of fun monitoring the Facebook voting yesterday until late into the evening.  And it was great to see so much chatter on Facebook in support of the mission!  If any of you happened to follow the link from my blog to vote, I thank you! 

Special Request

I have a special request from all you who have Facebook accounts.  On Tuesday, June 7th, the City Rescue Mission of Saginaw (my employer and a great ministry) is on the ballot to win a new mini-van through the Toyota 100 Cars for Good program!  We are up against four other non-profit organizations on that day, so we would be very appreciate of your vote!  All you have to do is go to this website, and click: 

http://apps.facebook.com/carsforgood

After you vote, please tell your Facebook friends to vote also!  We'd love for this to go viral!  Thanks so much for helping the City Rescue Mission of Saginaw.  If you would like to see how we could use a new van (one with attached bumpers), click here. 


Muchas gracias!!

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Since we have a new rescue mission website, we decided new staff photos were in order.  I scheduled our wonderful volunteer photographer to do the photos, which were looooong overdue, I might add.  Marcia and I were so excited when we got the new photos yesterday, that we decided to make them our new Facebook profile pictures.  Marcia, being new on Facebook, asked me for instructions on changing her picture.  Apparently, I forgot to suggest that she use picture thumbnails in the upload process.  She thought she had selected the right photo by its number, so she sure was surprised when this popped up!

Marcia called my office to tell me what happened, and we had a good laugh. Then I quickly logged in to Facebook to capture the moment with my camera.  For a brief moment in time, I got to "be" the illustrious Marcia Reeves, but I'd never be able to pull it off for long...for a host of reasons.  

And for the record, here is Marcia's new photo.  Isn't she lovely?  : )

Work Happenings

Last Saturday morning, I gave a short presentation at a rescue mission donor breakfast about the new Saginaw Rescue Mission website.  I told the audience that being the "webmaster" is probably the most enjoyable part of my job, now that we have a website with a content management system.  It's fun to log in and change page content, upload pictures, add pages, etc. - similar to blogging, but on a larger scale! My blogging experience has definitely been advantageous in learning the CMS features.  Our goal over the next year or so is to upgrade the three other websites associated with Rescue Ministries of Mid-Michigan.  We'll be able to keep all the websites current without having to rely on a third-party administrator.  That makes my heart glad!  

Click here to check out the new website. And if you're interested, sign up to receive our monthly email newsletter.  That's another part of my job. : )

Staff Sampler Day aka Foo-Foo Fun Day!

There are some days that my job is so much fun, it hardly seems like work. Yesterday was one of those days.  We are in the midst of the busy season, when mission events are coming at us one right after another.  We hardly have time to catch our breath!  But thanks to some wonderful volunteers, the staff was treated to a special luncheon and shopping experience over the lunch hour.  Pam and Dolly, winners in a recent local radio station cook-off, have adopted the mission as one of their volunteer efforts.  Pam, as a semi-retired teacher, and Dolly, as a retired nurse, recognize that those who have vocations in helping others, often need encouragement themselves.  The ladies prepared the menu items that they will serve at our upcoming Christmas Open House & Pancake Breakfast on December 11th...an egg casserole and French crepes (pumpkin, apple, strawberry, and chocolate fillings).  And they even did the clean-up!  After lunch, the ladies shopped Diane's "foo-foo" creations...pins, hair accessories, jewelry and purses.  So much fun!  We are so thankful for our wonderful volunteers.  They really do brighten our days! 

Dolly and Pam

Karen and I are wearing our lovely feather foo-foos. 

Kim (showing her bracelet), Sharmin, Diane (foo-foo crafter), and Marcia

Heart Working Volunteers

Yesterday, I held a brunch for the mission volunteers that come on a regular basis...about half of this core group was able to attend. Their efforts were part of our 12,000 volunteer hours in 2007. They have become like staff to us and are also good friends. I served sausage and bacon quiches, French toast casserole, hot fruit compote, muffins, and I even tried my hand at an edible centerpiece. I saw one at a meeting I attended last week that retails for $50, and I decided it wouldn't be that difficult to make (and a lot cheaper). I used a head of lettuce for the base, and stuck melon and strawberries on skewers and then into the lettuce. I put small clusters of grapes around the base. I had planned to use fresh pineapple, but I ran out of time, so it didn't turn out as pretty as I hoped.

RETRO

What do you do on a cold January day to liven up the office? Well, if you're Marcia, you dress up in '70s garb as "Foxy Brown." She had the 'fro, the sunglasses, the large hoop earrings, the long leather trench coat, the platform boots, and the walk. All she was missing was the theme from "Shaft."

A Perspective

We're several days past the Great Thanksgiving Banquet (GTB) at the mission, and I think I'm ready to share my perspective on the event. I said earlier in the week that I liken the GTB to a second childbirth...you know what's going to happen, there's nothing you can do to stop it, so you just look forward to the joy of having it over. This year's preparation went better than the three previous years that I have been involved. We made several adjustments to our plans so that the day would flow more smoothly. I guess we were lulled into a false sense of well being, because when we opened the doors to our guests on Wednesday afternoon, the "labor pains" were fast and hard. For some reason, our guests were especially restless and contrary this year. We had more people than normal trying to get their food basket early because they supposedly have to leave for some reason. We don't waiver on our policy that everyone has to stay for the meal and the chapel service before the food is distributed. That didn't set well with some. Other guests refused to remain seated in their dining room until they were excused, and that also caused some tense moments. Let's just say that it wouldn't have taken much for the situation to turn rather volatile, and we staffers realized we were not prepared for that potential turn of events.

But the part of the GTB that is most disheartening to me each year is just looking at the faces of our guests. They reflect a lack of joy and peace either because of substance abuse issues, mental illness, or hopelessness about their condition. Some have never known any other existence, and they don't have the desire or drive to aspire to anything better. That's why we share the gospel with them. We know that but for the grace of God, we could be in the same hopeless state.

On a positive note, our volunteers were such a blessing. Their joy in serving encouraged us throughout the week. And their contribution to the GTB was invaluable: wrapping the utensils, sorting food donations, preparing the dressing, deboning 50 turkeys, donating over 100 pies, serving the pies, assembling the over 400 food baskets, setting up the dining rooms, indoor traffic, day care, registration, food basket distribution, chapel ministry and counseling, kitchen serving, dining room serving and clean-up. I'm thankful for such a wonderful group of people, many of whom return year after year because it's so much...fun (?).

Are You Smarter Than (in this case) a Sixth Grader?

What are they teaching kids in schools these days? Marcia told me that her son received math extra credit for knowing the name of the slash (/) between the numerator and denominator of a fraction. What?!! In all the math classes I ever had, I never learned that the slash had the official name of "virgule." A virgule is also used to separate alternatives as in "and/or" or to indicate the ends of verse lines when printed continuously. Now don't you feel smart? But just try impressing someone by casually slipping that word into your conversation the next time you're talking fractions or alternatives. Sounds like a Brian Regan moment to me.

Advice

I've been cleaning and purging my closets and cabinets over the summer, and my experience at the rescue mission has definitely affected my procedure for disposing of the unwanted items. I recently calculated that the mission received a weekly average of 2800 pounds of clothes and household items in 2006. If you visit the mission, you'll undoubtedly encounter bags and boxes of stuff on hold in our reception area, waiting to be taken to the donation room upstairs. It seems to be a never ending state of affairs. We have about eight faithful volunteers that come regularly to sort and organize what can actually be used by our clients. They only keep clothing that is very good condition and is currently seasonal, and household items that are also in good condition. The majority of the donated items are either discarded or shipped across state to another mission that has a thrift store. So now, instead of boxing everything for donation, I keep in mind this question: "Is this something I would wear myself?" If the answer is "no," I just throw the item in my own trash can, sparing someone else the inevitable task. As you go through your own closets and finally decide to part with those plaid doubleknits from the '70s, just go ahead and pitch 'em. Trust me, nobody else wants them either.

And We're Off

This week officially marks the busy season at work for both Joel and me. The City Rescue Mission held its 102nd annual banquet at Horizon's Conference Center on Tuesday night with over 700 people in attendance, the largest ever as far as we know. The food was scrumptious (and we're not ashamed to admit that we traipsed clear across the hall to compare dessert tables), the client testimonies were inspiring, and the "sermon" from Mark chapter 2 about Jesus healing the paralytic man has forevermore changed how I visualize that passage. The praise and worship music though was mediocre...good musicians but with lyrics lacking substance (think Michael W. Smith style). Now that the banquet is over, the mission will be busy until the end of the year with food and turkey drives, a coat drive, a radio-thon, the Giving Tree, Christmas gift drives, and last but not least, the annual Great Thanksgiving Banquet. I scheduled our first GTB planning meeting for Monday, and I hope I can generate some enthusiasm before then. It's one of those events that cause people to take a deep breath and say, "Here we go again...whether we like it or not."

Michigan Sugar is planning to start processing sugar beets early tomorrow morning, assuming everything is in place tonight. Hopefully, all the preparatory work over the summer will allow for a smooth start-up. We shall see. Last week, the company celebrated last year's record-breaking production of over 1 billion pounds of sugar, but I think the early projections are not that high for the coming year. And even though Joel is taxed both mentally and physically during the campaign, he never tires of the chemical reactions involved, so this is an exciting time for him.