Myself, David K, and three other volunteers from The Dining Room spoke tonight at a gathering of local churches that have joined together to provide some welfare assistance as a group in their area. We were invited to speak about The Dining Room to a group of church leaders, volunteers and people who had been actively providing welfare assistance for the past ten years.
I spoke with Mary, one of the volunteers, about what we felt was the heart and soul of TDR — community. This was followed by another volunteer talking about the spiritual aspect of TDR and finally, one of the teenage volunteers, specifically invited to a group that recognises it is aging, spoke with a quote that was awesome — something along the lines of, “I realised I had better be following what was asked of me, or change the book I am reading!”
Anyway, what was astounding was the comments afterward where many of these folk from large churches in the surrounding areas, all commented that they felt challenged and humbled by what we were doing at TDR! In fact, one of the men commented that he felt like a sham of a Christian by just attending Sunday church. Another, spoke of the people, and how they provide welfare but never really know the people.
It was a good night and the team spoke well. We were reflecting afterward, that the team approach reflected the ministry, where one person speaking may have only be seen as the one person and not the ministry as the team presented it. The group on a whole were welcomed and the gathering humbled and challenged by what we had to say. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it.
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