Springfield Soup Kitchen

Matt and I have had the desire for our family to serve in the community and reach out to our neighbors for awhile now. With busy sports seasons coming to an end, this was the perfect time for us to finally act on what we knew we needed to do! 

We sat down and brainstormed with the kids some things that we could do to serve as a family. Some things they were excited about was doing projects for widows from our church, having neighbors over for dinner, serving in the soup kitchen or in another community organization to help those in need.  Our goal was to do one "service" a month with the hopes of increasing it from there.

At the beginning of October we helped a widow from our church who had some "fix-it" type jobs that needed done.  The kids loved going over and helping her out, with a plate of cookies in hand, of course!

Next on our list was trying out the Springfield Soup Kitchen. I've been following them on Facebook for awhile now, reading their posts and wondering if this was somewhere we could serve on a regular basis. Two weeks ago we tried it and we fell in love! They serve anywhere from 175-almost 300 people in a one hour time slot, all done restaurant style.  Matt was in his glory! He often talks about how he misses serving in a restaurant. He's just a little bit excited about getting to relive his server days. 

The first day we went we were given two tables to serve. Kinslee, Braden and I ended up being pulled into the kitchen to prep the dessert and we stayed back there most of the time, cleaning dishes as they came back to the kitchen.  At the very end we got to go out and visit with a man and his two children who thought Kinslee and Maddie were just the best things ever. They were adorable!

The second week, Kinslee and I served on the line prepping plates to give to the servers. Kinslee would much rather be behind the scenes than out interacting with the people. She loved being in the line, placing a roll and butter on each plate and handing it to the servers. Who knows...maybe she'll always be a "behind the scenes" person, which is perfectly fine, but I'm guessing she'll get more comfortable as she goes and maybe enjoy serving the people more.

The kids eyes (and actually our eyes) have been opened to see that there are people hurting and living with nothing just 7 minutes down the road from us. People with black hands from the dirt because they have no running water or soap. People who's teeth fall out while they are eating because of vitamin deficincies. People obviously very addicted to some substance. On Monday three girls came in at the very end who were no more than 2 years older than Maddie. It was their first time there and they were giggling the whole time, but obviously embarrased about eating at the soup kitchen, to the point of saying when they entered that they didn't want any food. Maddie was able to serve them a meal and watch them inhale three cupcakes that she brought them from the kitchen. We had a good talk with Maddie that night.

It's a rough side of town and we keep a tight rein on the kids. The first night one of the clients told Braden he'd help him take out the trash. Braden didn't know how to be nice, but say no, so out the side door down a little alley he went with the man. Thankfully I saw this and sent Matt right away. The man was most likely just being helpful, but the kids got lectured that they were supposed to stick with us at all times! We've not felt threatened at all. The clients are all very respectful. We've heard that the later in the month, the rougher it gets since people run out of money for food and drugs.

The man who runs the kitchen posted these pics of us on FB, so I grabbed them so we could remember this! You can pray that we continue to make this a priority to help out in this way or whatever other way God has for us. It was such a huge blessing to us!!

And next week we have our across-the-street neighbors over for the first time in the 8 years we've lived here. Sad, I know!