I woke up at 4:30 on Thanksgiving Day.  My alarm wouldn't go off for another hour, but I knew I couldn't go back to sleep.  The excitement of the day was there, but so was the worry that we wouldn't have enough food for all the meals that had been promised.  Last year was different.  By Wednesday, night I could not get another thing in the refrigerators.  This year, I even had an empty shelf in the walk in and only one cake in the volunteer fridge.  Not enough food to fill over 400 'to go' boxes, and what about all the people that would come here to eat?

I was at Bethany by 5:30, still dark outside, so quiet inside.  After turning on the lights, I opened the fridge, secretly hoping God had 'magically' filled that empty shelf.  Nope, still empty.  I went out to Fellowship Hall.  It was beautiful.  The many volunteers had done a great job of decorating the day before.  How many tables were there??  Twenty, with eight chairs each.  My anxiety grew.  I knew more food was coming, but last year most of it had arrived on Wednesday.

It's to early to start warming the food, so I make coffee and sit down in the cafe.  I can't get the people I have talked to all week off my mind.  There's Nancy, who is raising five handicapped children, Dora, who just lost her job and has no money and her brother, who she hasn't seen in fifteen years, is coming for Thanksgiving.  Ione, with ten children, most of them grandchildren, Crystal, who left me a message and said she had no food and no money, but she believed in God.  And then there was Cynthia who just wanted to say thank you to Bethany for bringing dinner last year and to the person who delivered that food and gave her money to buy diapers for her new baby.  So many people who needed so much, and some just needed to talk. 

My mind drifts back to that empty shelf.  My distress over that shelf is a gentle reminder that I fall short when it comes to trusting God.  Jesus said, "Do you trust me?"  Hmmm, well, do I??  A quick prayer and it's time to heat up the food.  With the ovens filled, I sit back down for more coffee.  The first volunteers are suppose to come at 9:30.  It's a little after nine and the parking lot is empty.  A few minutes later I turn around to look at the clock - 9:25 - I close my eyes, uh Lord, do you see what time it is?  I hear it again, "do you trust me?".  As I turned back around, ten or twelve people are coming through the door and there is a steady stream of people coming up the sidewalks, all carrying food.  For the next two hours, food continued to arrive.  The counters were full, the ovens were full, and three serving tables were full.  Thanksgiving at Bethany had begun.

Around three hundred people ate at church and over 400 'to go' boxes were packed and ready to be delivered.  A lot of people stayed to help clean up and by 2:30 we were finished.  Genny, Kyle and I were standing in the cafe saying our goodbyes when we saw people walking up the sidewalk.  A man and his son were bringing a thank you note from a lady they had delivered food to.  He said she had it written when they got there.  A single mother, working full time with a disabled son, thanking us for making her Thanksgiving easier and for taking time away from our families to reach out to hers.  Thank you Lord that we could keep our promise to Christina and to so many others.

I think this day for me wasn't just about the food, but more about an empty shelf in a refrigerator and a heart that thought maybe God wasn't going to come through this time.  But He did.  And He does.  And he always will.

Philippians 4:6 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything in prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING present your requests to God".  While we lie awake, unable to sleep because of our worry and distress God is waiting for our prayer and petition so that He can be God - and we can get some sleep!  Please remind me of that next year.