One of the most incredible things about following in the way of Jesus is the honor of working to make God’s Kingdom come on earth, as it is in Heaven. In Matthew 25 Jesus said that when we provide food, shelter, clothing, friendship and love to the overlooked, voiceless people in society we are providing those things to him. When we share tears, laughter, our lives and resources with our downtrodden brothers and sisters we are sharing those things with Jesus himself. If you stop to think about that long enough the joy becomes overwhelming.
We at Eikon have a specific opportunity to collectively and directly experience that and we want you to join us, whether or not you call Eikon home or even if you have no interest in the whole Jesus thing.
On any given night in Central Arkansas there are roughly 2,500 people without homes and food. For a number of years the area below the Broadway Street Bridge has been a gathering place for many of these folks. Starting at 6:05PM on Friday, November 26th (next week!) Eikon will prepare and serve a meal on the fourth Friday of every month to those who are there.
Given our size and limited resources, this is quite an undertaking for us. We should expect a minimum of 50 people for each meal, and over 100 is not uncommon on evenings when the weather is enjoyable. We are committed to serving fresh, healthy food bought locally and sustainably when possible as well as sustainable cutlery and serving containers. If we’re going to pull it off we need help in the following areas:
Food Planning: 4-6 people are needed to plan the menu and shopping list every month. Those interested can sit at the same table at Eikon Sunday night and we’ll get the planning done then.
Shopping: 2-4 people are needed to shop for each meal. The money will come from Eikon funds.
Cooks and kitchens: Our hope is that several of us can cook each meal together. The cooking could realistically be done by about 4 people, but it would be a lot more fun if we cook as a group. We may have to cook at 2 locations, so we also need at least 1 more centrally located kitchen.
Set-up: 4 people are needed to pick up, transport and set up tables, tents (if raining), etc. This will also involve tear down and taking the materials back to storage.
Servers: The more the merrier. If we have more than needed we can serve each other and some of us can just hang out and get to know some new friends. We’ll throw clean up in here as well.
Money: This isn’t really our favorite subject at Eikon, but the bottom line is we need resources to pull this off. You can write a check or donate online. If you desire, you can designate your contribution to this specific effort by writing 4th Friday in the memo.
This is starting next week, so we need help right now. Obviously people can volunteer for more than one of these needs. Please email or call John at 501.319.5363 if you have questions or are interested in helping in one or more of these areas.
Seriously, this is going to be so much fun we should be paying admission.