Three weeks ago Mark challenged the congregation to invite someone to Sunday dinner. He talked about remembering Sunday dinner as he grew up, and how it used to be a common occurrence that people had people into their homes for food and fellowship after church on Sunday. He set a plan in motion, and even offered up this mechanism for a successful two Sunday “have someone over for dinner” event. The first week those families with last names starting with the letter A thru Kla were to invite families whose last names started with Kle thru Z, followed the next week with the later group doing the inviting. One final caveat was added; you had to invite someone you didn’t already have a relationship with. The point was for us to expand our circle of friends.
As we drove away from the building that first Sunday I asked Paula if she thought we would get an invite to dinner the next week. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” She said. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long; we received a call on Monday evening from Lee and Robin Henry. They invited to their place for Sunday lunch the next week. The Henry’s have been worshiping with us for a little over a year, and I had spoken to them on a number of occasions, but I didn’t really know them. Well, as a result of Mark’s challenge to the congregation Paula and I know them better now. Here are a few things I can tell you about the Henrys. Robin is a good cook. She had prepared ham, and the fixing’s, and she also took my need to avoid gluten into consideration and made gluten free dinner rolls, and desert. (By the way, I didn’t tell them about my problem, they remembered it from my having mentioned during a class sometime in the past.) Next is their dedication to meet and worship with the McDermott Road congregation. They live forty-five minutes from the building, yet they attend every time the doors are open. In other words, it takes a good chunk of their day just to get to and from worship, and that serves as inspiration for me. In short, Paula and I were truly blessed by the opportunity to get to know them better.
Now it was our turn to be the host. I looked through the online membership directory, and chose two couples to invite over for yesterday’s dinner after worship. We invited Scott and Elaine Butler, and Charlie and Shirley Fitzgerald to our home for a pot roast dinner. The Fitzgerald’s are the newer couple to the congregation of the two. We had ended up sharing a table with them one Sunday a year or so ago when we happened to get to the same restaurant for dinner at the same time. That had been a nice day, and we looked forward to getting to know them better. Unfortunately, Shirley wasn’t able to make it to worship yesterday, but Charlie did, and he joined us for lunch as what he called “the fifth wheel.” I like the fact that he felt comfortable enough to come by for lunch and a visit without his better half being there. I know I might have bowed out of the event without Paula’s protection.
The Butler’s have been at McDermott Road for several years, and we have had a few nice conversations over the years, but we had never connected on a personal friendship level. I always felt that we could be good friends if the opportunity presented its self. The thing is we have been empty nesters for a long time and they still had kids at home until this year. Now that they have joined the couple’s only league it just seemed right that we should hook up with them. Sure enough we had a great time visiting them, and learning about their lives. I think what we started yesterday with the Fitzgerald’s and Butler’s and the connection we made last week with the Henry’s will grow into closer relationships. Thanks for the encouragement for us to step out Mark.
I want to finish up by saying that I hope Paula and I will not have to be prompted by Mark to keep doing this kind of thing. It was nice to go to someone’s home for lunch, and to have folks over for food and friendship. I don’t know how many couple’s from McDermott Road participated in the two weeks, but I hope it was a lot. And, I want to encourage you to invite someone to your home in the near future, someone you don’t already know well. I think you will be blessed by the experience.
Till next time,
Grump