Canaan's Journey

Archive for November, 2009

Stormin Norman and his new t-shirt!

Making the sandwiches

Canaan Band recently had the opportunity to sponsor a Sunday afternoon as part of our home church’s Homeless Ministry. 

Every Sunday our lay members volunteer to make soup, sandwiches and prepare other items to take down to the homeless people who hang out in a park in downtown St Pete.  This ministry has been alive for the last 8 years by our church and, surprinsingly enough, was breathed to life by the youth department. 

As the story goes, it was eight years ago and a very cold evening in St Pete.  I know hard to believe…COLD and FLORIDA don’t seem to ever be in the same sentence.  Nevertheless, the temperature was unusually near freezing and many homeless people make St Pete their city of residence. 

One Sunday night in the Youth Class at Christ the Cornerstone church, one of the teenagers attending the class, and who actually was the son of one of  the church’s pastors said,  “Why don’t we go up and down the streets and bring a pastry and hot coffee to all the homeless standing on the street corners?”    After being a little shocked at his idea, but impressed with this type of notion, the youth leader thought it might be something spontaneous and exciting for the kids to do that night.   So, they immediately packed up the coffee and pastries and headed out in a van and traveled up and down the streets passing out coffee.

Wrapping the sandwices

The blessings were immense!  The kids were thrilled!  8 years later… the ministry has grown to feeding 100+ people every Sunday afternoon at Demen’s Landing park.

So after church service one Sunday, we gathered all the friends, partners and families of Canaan Band and made sandwiches, soup, salad and other items, packed them up and headed down to the park.

I, for one, was so thrilled to see so many folks join us that day!  It was an incredible feeling to work together for this ministry.   It was kind of funny to note that our sandwich-making/packing and soup-stirring skills ventures aren’t quite honed yet!  LOL   But it was fun to laugh at each other and sing while we’re working, feeling the comaraderie of everyone.

Let’s just say that we probably need to stick to tweaking our musical talents and be content to be mere novices at cooking and packing skills!

Is the soup done yet?

Nevertheless, we caravan’d down to the park and met up with some incredible people.

We were reminded that homeless people aren’t always in their condition due to a fault of theirs.  There’s circumstances that they’ve met that cannot be understood or controlled.  So, we pray for them and love them just where they are. 

Feeding the homeless in St Pete

HEY!  Isn’t that what God does for all of us?   Loves us…RIGHT WHERE WE ARE, AS WE ARE…NO JUDGMENTS.  JUST LOVE.

Have a blessed day!

hugs,
mel

Hello everyone,

As we enter into the holiday season, I’m praying that we all seek peace and warmth from family and friends.  The economic conditions that we’re all experiencing could, if you allow it, make you feel helpless in that you won’t be able to purchase and do the things that you’d like for your loved ones.

Remember, TIME is such a commodity in this world!  Your time, OUR time is valuable and it’s definitely worth spending that precious resource with those who need your love and attention.

The greatest gift…is our love and TIME! 

Hugs,
mel

Mel and Canaan Band in concert Columbus GA 7/09

We opened for the Ray Boltz concert in Tampa on October 2, 2009.