Soup Supper Celebration

• 5:00 pm: Arrive at SJA Church Kitchen. Greet other members of Small Christian Community scheduled to set up and serve supper for Ash Wednesday. See Roseann Rogers and crew for set-up instructions on what has to be done. Peanut Butter, Jelly, Butter, prepared and distributed to all tables along with platters and plates of all kinds of bread. Pour pitchers of water, carafes of cider. Milk station set up with cups. Sample somebody’s wine….Mmmm.
• 5:30 pm: Log in and arrange the homemade soups arriving: Beef Barley, Roasted Tomato, Potato, Wild Rice and Mushroom...every kind imaginable. Gourmet all the way!
• 5:45 pm: Taste some soup. Check out breads. Taste more soup. Sample some more wine… Mmmm. People are arriving. Get beverages from cooler. Everybody to their stations…
• 6:00 pm: A hundred people counted in Hall; fifty already enjoying soup; fifty more lined up trying to decide.
• 6:15 pm: Tables nearly full. People lined up back to hallway. 250 counted. Compliments on the soups are heard. New soups still coming in. “What kind is that…? OK. Save me some!”
• 6:30 pm: Tables running out of bread...make the rounds to fill up plates with more. People are happy about something...peanut butter and jelly must be giving them a high. St. Joan of Arc is friendly but not this friendly. This is Lent? Seems like too much fun. Haven’t seen some people for months.
• 6:45 pm: Running out of much of the bread. Cut some more. Running out of cider. Steal some from another place…? OK. “You want more raisin bread? I’ll find some. Pepper bread? All gone!” Whooooey! Way too much fun. The count: 650 estimated…650 happy men, women and children!
  
• 7:00pm: Tables emptying, but people still coming. Call for ‘seconds’ and ‘thirds’ on soup. Clean-up begins with empty tables. Collect dishes, jars of peanut butter, jelly, etc. Clean off tables.
• 7:20pm: Serving and clean-up crew sits down to rest…and sample a bit more wine. Mmmmm. Want to have some fun this Lent? See Julie Madden; volunteer for a soup supper. WAY too much fun.

Prayer Service

The theme for the evening Prayer Service: “The Cost of Discipleship”; inspired, I am told, by Joan Chittister’s speech to a Women’s Ordination Conference in Dublin, Ireland.

The service was structured around a story called “The Wall”. It is about a man whose people are in dire need and who undertakes a journey to find them a better place to live. He wanders until exhausted, finally coming upon a large Wall. In scaling it he sees a world of beauty and abundance on the other side.

His dilemma is in knowing that to return to his people requires another long and arduous journey through the desert, while it would be much easier to just stay. The man spends the night in a quandary, deliberating upon what he should do. In the morning he realizes he must return for his people who are in need of such beauty and abundance.

Four of our parishioners (Shauna Hennessy, Andy Fisher, Stephanie Vagle and Steve Doyle) then told their own stories of ‘coming through the desert’ in their own lives, in which they recount how such experiences helped them to reach out in love and compassion.

Traditional ashes were administered among the parishioners with the admonition to “Return to God and Bring Peace to the World”. Father George offered a prayer that our Lent would focus on being disciples of peace, compassion and equality.

Music during this service was provided by the choir with Anna Vagle leading them. (Appreciation is extended to Julie Madden for her notes on this evening service.)

Ray Tanis is a farmer, masquerading as an engineer, with a passion for writing... Kids are grown, so concentrates on sunflowers and pumpkins. Ray loves writing poetry and music.

Todd Dalebroux his wife Karen and their children have been active in several ministries at SJA including Sister Parish, Soup Suppers, and Religious Ed.