The Cook's Appreciation Brunch

This week we held a very special brunch to honor our volunteer CarePoint cooks.

Kristen, Jean, Paige, Lita, Annette

Missionaries Pat Conti, Teresa Rehmeyer, Kristen (and Charles) Young along with guest "missionaries" Paige Becnel (Kristen's mom) from our own Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Lita Veron and Annette Bates from Household of Faith in Gonzales, LA; Pat's Mom, Barbara Conti, Pat's brother, Robert Conti (who got a bunch of photos for us) both from HPC, their cousin Steve from Washington DC, and I were there to express our gratitude for their faithfulness to the job. Ben even showed up for a brief time between his meetings.

Day in and day out these dear ladies get up early to go to their CarePoints to fix the food that our wonderful donors have provided for the children God has called us to minister to. They live in very humble places, and have very little themselves.

So we wanted to give them a time to have a meal that they didn't have to fix. And to make it an event they wouldn't forget!

Each guest found a long-stemmed rose at her place at the white-clothed table. Annette and Lita opened with prayer and lovely song--Annette sang, Lita signed (deaf language). The brunch was served buffet style, and I'm sure the ladies had their fill.

Some of our ladies don't know Jesus--yet. So we wanted to take advantage of the moment to let them sense His great love by the ways we treated them.

Then Paige brought an awesome message: The Story of Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand. She pointed out that the little boy with the food probably had a momma who got up early to cook the fish and make the bread. And that her faithfulness to her job was the beginning of the feeding of over 5000 people; a miracle. No one knows what that momma's name was. She's not even mentioned in the story. But she did it anyway. And see what happened!

Well, that really touched their hearts and encouraged them. Paige had our guest-cooks come forward and the missionaries laid hands on each one and prayed for them. It became quite emotional for us...

Then we gave out "award certificates" for various things they had done with excellence throughout the year. The cooks of the winning CarePoints stood and danced and cheered when their names were announced. We gave every lady a smaller certificate called "The Servant's Heart Award" for their sacrificial service to the children.

There were gifts for each lady to take home with her at the close of our party: Annette and Lita had lovely scarves for them with a scripture prayer printed on a tag attached with a ribbon. We had a pretty gift basket for them, too.

There was music, such singing you have never heard as the cooks raised their voices in praise to the Lord. Harmonies that only Africa can offer... I'm sure our Heavenly Father was blessed.

I know I was.