JIM'S LITTLE BLOG

The Jim Bunch is eating here with some friends, lots of friends. We were at church Wednesday night. The menu was fried catfish***, hush puppies, French fries, onion rings, cole slaw, salad, and banana pudding (with coffee). It was all very good, we all cleaned our plates.

In case you're wondering about my plate being fuller than the others, they all had a fifteen minute headstart on me. I had been doing some shopping. Food+and+Drink Food Homeless Friends

The other six at our table and the lady standing were all in the Sunday school class that we bailed out of. The class got to be 150 strong, with well over 100 coming every Sunday. So a new class was started and we went there. Our new class now has about 60 members, average attendance is in the high thirties. Our former class has grown to over 130 again now

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An orientation is in order here: to the right is our sanctuary; on the left is the old Conroe Main Street, purchased by the church and enclosed by this facade and roof; and behind that is the library, a new kitchen, and a large dining room; upstairs are classrooms.

To the left is the gymnasium, also used for a contemporary worship service. Once every fifteen months the gym and accompaning classrooms and the old kitchen are turned into sleeping quarters, eating room and play space for four or five homeless families we will host.

The hosting is shared with fourteen other Montgomery County churches who are affiliated with Montgomery County Interfaith Hospitality Network. This organization is assotiated with Interfaith Hospitality Networks (NIHN), a national organization.

You can read about NIHN at http://www.nihn.org/index.html
The link to our local group is http://www.mcihn.org/

Our Sunday school class volunteers to help one night of this week. We become host families, members bring the evening meal, and one person drives those who don't have cars to and from the day center, shool, or work. Two will spend the night at the church. Generally ten to twelve class families are involved for that night.

It is very rewarding to see these displaced families get back on their feet again. Oh yes, on Wednesday nights, the church provides the food. They would have liked this week's fried catfish.

*** An unnamed relative in Nebraska noted that after eating Southern fried catfish she wouldn't be wanting Nebraska catfish for quite a while.

# posted by Jim : 8/04/2006 12:12:00 AM