Welcomed and fed
I had a truly lovely and delicious breakfast experience a while back. The Table on Main is an adorable little restaurant in the heart of town in River Falls, WI. It’s an eatery where the owners and staff know their local customers by name. It’s a welcoming place for visitors who leave as friends, no longer strangers in town. During my perfectly cooked meal, the owner, Kris Grove, stopped to say hello, and hello turned into a Godly sisterhood sharing the joys and worries of our hearts in that moment.
The conversation was initiated by the pleasant surprise that awaits guests at every table. A rectangular wooden box sits against the wall of the booth. In addition to salt & pepper shakers and coffee creamers, it includes games like Yahtzee and Checkers. And then there’s a mason jar filled with questions to ask your meal companion. The purpose of this little box of simple wonders: engage with each other, talk, put your phone away. How this made my heart smile! Kris revealed that she and her husband want the restaurant to be filled with people connecting with each other. The café for them is a “mission”, not a business. Their goal is to pay their bills; not to get rich.
When Kris moved on to other customers, I started listening to the #Lenten40Challenge on the @Hallow app. That day’s testimony was from Sr. Bernice who spoke about her father and the physical and mental challenges he had to overcome from his time fighting in the Korean War.
God always provides
Young Bernice and her family were dirt poor. “Boo”, as Bernice was called, was charged with sitting with her dad on the apartment steps to make sure he didn’t fall. Their inner-city street was lined with veterans whose wives had not taken them back after they returned from war.
These shattered men would crawl over to Bernice’s father to find consolation as they shared their devastating stories. Beyond their mental and medical injuries, they were hungry. One day, Boo’s dad announced,
“We are starting a soup kitchen.”
And so, they did, in their 2 room flat on the third floor of the apartment building. Despite little to no food of their own, the soup kitchen thrived. Emotional and physical nourishment was what these brave war heroes needed.
It occurred to me that the Table on Main is Kris’s “soup kitchen“.
Sometimes a soup kitchen is a brick-and-mortar place; other times a person. One person; one voice. There are many ways to feed a person. Sometimes it’s simply a smile, kind word, a quick hug.
Be a soup kitchen.
Because sometimes Hope needs a hand up.
Praying you blessings for the journey,
Yvonne (aka, Lita)
