Two of my favorite ministries combined a little while ago for a marvelous evening.  Our little country church, Casco Alliance, went into inner city Portland to prepare a community dinner for the neighbors of the Root Cellar; essentially an urban mission reaching out mostly to African immigrants and refugees on Portland's Munjoy Hill. Although I have been part of similar meals at the Root Cellar in the past, this was the first time I went with our home church of the past two years.

To say I was part of the meal is a little misleading. Several women, men and children from Casco provided, prepared and served a turkey dinner with all the fixings - Thanksgiving in May- while all I did was provide the entertainment in the form of a 45 minute show after the tables were all cleared.  Judy, who heads up our church's food pantry ministry in rural Casco, was able to provide all the food from excess she had, and she headed up the team of cooks for the evening.  The meal looked and smelled terrific, although I confess I didn't eat any. I was busy setting up for the show, but thanks to a gift of Chinese food from our friend Sally Huang, I had eaten plenty prior to my arrival in Portland.

I did however sit at a table with another guy from our church along with some of the guests of the Root Cellar. On boy of about nine years old kept the table entertained with his chatter. Then the blueberry cobbler was served and it was time to finish any final set up for the show.

I tried to keep the show 'light' as this was meant to be a social, not evangelistic event. I didn't avoid the Gospel, though, and I ended with my shackles escape focusing on Paul's words, "Who can set me free? Thanks be to God through Jesus who sets us free."

After a very efficient clean up time in the kitchen, and my own packing up of my show, we thanked the Root Cellar staff for the opportunity to serve and we headed east out of the city. Since then, everyone who went has said we'd love to do it again, and we recently received a nice note from the Root Cellar inviting us back again. Pray for this next opportunity as we may throw another feast in the fall.