Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Great Tomato Epic

Soo… as promised, I now bring to you the infamous tomatoes story!!

So as I mentioned in a previous post, Marlee and I received a large amount of produce, etc from the food program our first Tuesday here. Among that large amount of produce was an entire crate of tomatoes. Once again, I have no earthly idea WHY I accepted a 15lb box of grape tomatoes, but I did none the less!! Have any of you ever SEEN 15 lbs of grape tomatoes? Let me show you a picture to help you understand..



So anyways.. once I got this gastly amount of tomatoes home and into my fridge it began to set in just how many tomatoes I had on my hands! I immediately started eating them. I had a cereal bowl just full of tomatoes for dinner that night. The next night I bought cottage cheese to help me eat all the tomatoes. The next day I made sauce for Marlee and I, in fact, enough sauce for two meals! And yet, even after all of these attempts, along with daily throwing away a good amount of already wrinkly or rotten ones… It still appeared as if I had never so much as touched that silly box. I was at a loss! I had no earthly idea what to do. Every night I would get them out of the fridge and throw more away. But sadly, even with eating them on top of salads, I still was only getting rid of a handful (if that) at a time!

Come to find out, when Marlee told me she would not eat many, that was Marleespeak for “I won’t eat ANY”. Maybe I just imagined the ‘M’ in front of that. Sigh. So then I tried to gift some on to all of my neighbors, only to find out that I possibly might be the only person around here that eats fresh tomatoes!!

Finally I decided to just make a motherload of sauce and freeze it all. So that is what I did. 3 pots worth of that wretched sauce I made! There was enough for 4 pots, but I didn’t have enough pots. Then I also had some saved aside for lunch on Sunday to go on top of the salads.

The good news is that Sunday rolled around and I was able to use about half of the sauce to feed all of my hungry guests I had invited over. The bad news is that I never got around to making the rest of the sauce, and the salad came with tomatoes already in it. So we ended up throwing the last 2 lbs or so of it away. Sad times.

Needless to say, when I bought some tomatoes a few days ago for a recipe I was shopping for, it definitely hurt me a little inside.

My latest task is to figure out how to use two huge slabs of chocolate that we were gifted last week. Earlier this morning I was offered an enormous amount of carrots. I refused. I’m proud of myself. I did however give in to 1 tub of yogurt. But I convinced them that there was not enough room in my stomach, nor my refrigerator for the entire case. I think they have made it a game to see what all they can get rid of by sending it over to our place. Sometime last week Marlee accepted a partial block of roast beef. Yes block.. like what they have in the deli cases at the grocery store! Sigh.. oh well.. it is kinda fun. :)

Be good yall. Don’t accept bulk items from strangers!

~Kat K.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Week 1 = CRAZINESS!!

6-8-10

Well.. sorry it’s been forever since I updated! Life got a little crazy around here! Starting last Wednesday we finally got a list of things to do and a semi-schedule. Most of what we were given to do included cleaning and organizing things. Over the next three mornings (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) we managed to vacuum the sanctuary & foyer, clean all 6 bathrooms/locker rooms, vacuum and dust all of the offices, classrooms, and the library, and then we also vacuumed/swept/mopped the whole FLC Gym. That was just in the mornings! We also worked a few shifts in the gym, had worship practice, worked out a few times @ LA Fitness with Roxann, and went to Bible Study.

And then of course there was the Walmart adventure! Wednesday afternoon, after we finished our morning work, we decided it was time to brave phoenix on our own and make a Walmart run! Problem #1, no vehicle. Problem #2, no sense of direction for either of us. Sooo.. we went to John, who graciously lent us his truck. Problem #1 solved. Then he drew us a pretty detail map of how to get there, and helped us understand how the phoenix streets are set up. Good stuff. Problem #2 semi solved. We still had very little sense of direction, but we were better off then, than we had been before! So off to Wally World we went. Thanks to John and his lovely little map we found it quite easily! We spent a good bit of time going through walmart stocking up on the things we weren’t able to get on our trip to Costco the week before. Then after we checked out and found the truck (which took a little effort, not gonna lie!) we traded seats and I took the reins for the trip back. Unfortunately, the map did a great job of getting us TO Walmart, but not such a great job getting us BACK from walmart! He didn’t remember to write the name of the road we were supposed to turn off of. We knew the street AFTER, but not the actual street. But we thought we figured it out pretty well, but I made the mistake of thinking that the street was at the light. Well, it wasn’t. it was the street before the light. No sweat, I said, we’ll just turn down Roosevelt and find 15th, no problemo. Ok.. so maybe it was a problemo… the light was at a funky intersection.. you know the ones with 5 roads, not just 4? So I accidentally turned down some other street, NOT Roosevelt. Trying to keep it cool, I immediately started reading road signs to see if I could figure out where I was then. Within less than a minute we saw the McDonalds we had visited the week before, so we knew we were still close, but not quite in the right place. But it didn’t take us long to find 9th Ave and get ourselves back on track. Really all we did was make a big circle around the church. And in the end we made it back all safe and sound!

We did become the highlight of Bible Study though, since everybody found it quite hilarious that the interns A. took johns truck, and B. got lost in PHOENIX. For those of you who don’t know.. phoenix roads are set up VERY simply, so technically it should be pretty hard to get lost around here. But then again.. it is Marlee and I!

Haha.. so yeh. That was pretty much our week last week. On Saturday night we went to a Block Party for the Spanish Church, and then went out to dinner with Ed. Then Sunday we had church. I have officially been recruited to sing on the Worship team, so that was fun. Marlee taught Sunday School for Danielle, and did a pretty good job. Then after church, we had John, Roxann, Danielle, Jack, Jerri, and Ed over for lunch. It was really nice, and a good chance for us to kind of make up all of the stuff that they have been doing for us. We’ll probably do it again at least one more time before we leave..

Yesterday was a pretty chill day. In the morning we hung out with john watching youtube vids (haha), and then later went back to the apt to work on some stuff for the Youth on Fillmore event Friday. Then later that afternoon we came over to the gym to work our shift. After gym shift we went to ladies bible study at Mrs Debbie’s house. We got to meet some other young ladies that are closer to our age. They are all married and have children, or are pregnant, but it is nice to meet some people that are not twice or three times our age!

This morning was the feeding program. It went pretty well. There was one man who got all mad. He said he was being cheated, blah blah blah.. called all of us “Unchristian”. Meh.. oh well. Basically what had happened was, he showed up at 8 to get in line, and there was one lady standing at the gate, and then “50” boxes lined up behind her. But when he tried to get in line behind the lady, in front of all the boxes, the people who owned the boxes eventually showed up and told him he had to go to the back of the line. He said it was not fair and unchristian for them to put their boxes in line and then not stand there themselves. But the reality is, and this is what John and everybody else told him.. this is the way that they have been doing it for years! People will come as early as 2 in the morning to put their boxes in line, before coming back the next morning to get in line again. It’s just how it has always been done around here, and one guy isn’t gonna change that. Especially since he isn’t in any authority, he is just a member of the program. The sad thing is that he put up such a ruckus that he ended up being asked to not come back. How sad is that? I mean, I understand being frustrated by that kind of thing, but if you aren’t going to change anything, then let it be! And don’t make everything hard for everyone else. And ESPECIALLY don’t fight us so bad that you are asked to never come back! Sad Sad.. He even threatened to call the police on us, because we wouldn’t do anything about it. Sigh. I have to say that there definitely was a quote of the hour that came out of it.. He was outside yelling @ Pastor Jim and John and everybody and telling them that they were unchristian, blah blah blah.. and somebody looked at him and said, well, you are acting pretty unchristian yourself! His response? I’m not a Christian! Well.. at least he’s honest! Ha. Anyways.. I guess it’s his loss.. Other than that it went off pretty well. Similarly to last week, we ended up with so much stuff still left over toward the end that we were giving people 2 or 3 of each thing, and we had so much bread left over that they were just allowed to take whatever they wanted, whatever they could use, or give to their friends/neighbors.

All in all it’s been a good day. A good week really! Hope you guys are doing well!

Blessings,
~Kat K.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

"The loaves and fishes"... or in modern times "the pizza dough and jimmy dean sausage patties"

6-1-10
Wow.

I know I start off almost every single post with “wow”.. but that is about all I can say when I start out to write these things! Today was especially “wow” though!

We started off our day very early… 5 30am! Yikes! I didn’t even get up that early to leave for the airport! Sigh.. nyways. We had to be over @ the church bright and early at 6 30 to start preparing everything for the feeding program.

Upon our arrival, (which might I add was pretty prompt considering the hour!), we were put to work individually bagging loaves of bread, as well as bags of bagels and rolls. I thought we were doing pretty good, till they started bringing in the boxes from the truck! Let me tell you… they just kept coming, and coming, and coming! Between 6 45-8 we went from about 5 trash bags full of bread to countless milk crates, as well as palates upon palates of prepackaged buns, rolls, loaves, and everything in between! If you ever wondered how Jesus fed the 5,000, I am here to tell you that I have a sneaky suspicion that Church on Fillmore was involved!

On top of the bread that had been donated by the bakeries… there was another interesting thing that was brought to us to bag up.. dough. That’s right.. frozen bread dough.. ranging from small breadsticks, to large breadsticks, rolls of all shapes and sizes, loaves, buns, and even pizza dough! It was nothing short of unique and hilarious! Even the “Fillmore Normals”** said it was strange for even them to see that! By the end of it all we definitely had caked on dough all over our hands and shirts from the crumbs mixed with ice chips. Oh yeh, and our hands were pretty cold too! Haha..

After we FINALLY were able to finish bagging bread (with the help of about 4 more volunteers!), I got a chance to step back and look around. As we were bagging, I had noticed all of the men bringing in crates and boxes and all kinds of stuff and placing them in different places around the room, but it had never really registered with my mind what they were bringing in, and how much! All I was concerned about, honestly, was whether or not that stack of crates or boxes was for us to divide up too! Not to complain, or be ugly of course.. but in my mind, I was just thinking that at the rate we were bagging, next to the rate they were bringing in more things to bag, we were NEVER going to finish in time!! Haha.. but we did.

Nyways.. moving on.. we finished and I looked around only to find that the rest of the food line had begun to take shape as well! Before us in the line was all kinds of frozen meats and random other things.. I mean, everything from lbs of jimmy dean sausage, to microwavable breakfast sandwiches, to frozen juice, to hot dogs and brats, to frozen pizza’s, gigantic blocks of cheese… you name it, they probably had at least one of it up along the line somewhere! There was also a huge stack of assorted pastries.. again, everything from elmo birthday cakes to donuts, to gigantic carrot sheet cakes, to hostess snacks.. all kinds of fun, sweet stuff!

In my mind, as I looked around the room, I was thinking that for as much food was there, it still was not much considering the amount of people that were supposed to be coming through the line in just under an hour. Well, little did I know that I was only seeing a small part of the food line!! Ah yes.. step outside, and you find the entire PRODUCE section! I’m telling you, they had the sidewalks of the other side of the church completely lined with palates and crates and huge boxes full and overflowing with produce! They had cabbage, and cauliflower, and peppers, and corn, and potatoes, and green beans, and cherry tomatoes, and regular tomatoes… all kinds of stuff. It was incredible. It seriously looked like a farmers market out there!

Anyways.. so we settled in for a few minutes break before we had to get back to work. I washed some potatoes for the volunteer’s lunch.. and then it was time to round up for prayer. After prayer, Marlee and I were once again blown away by a new surprise! WE got to go through the line and get food for ourselves! What?!? Haha. I guess all of the volunteers get to go through and get food for their families.. so Marlee and I grabbed some boxes and before we knew it, people had thrown enough food in our boxes to possibly feed the 5,000 ourselves! Ok, maybe not.. but to two little girls who had been happily living off of tuna salad and peanut butter sandwiches and cereal for the past week.. yikes, it was CRAZY! Craziest of all, I have to say though.. is the fact that somehow.. I’m still not completely sure how.. but somehow I ended up with an ENTIRE CASE of cherry tomatoes. Yes dear friends.. and entire case! I’m talking, 15 or so lbs of cherry tomatoes. I have tomatoes to feed an army. Or at least the Kendall family for probably a month! And the funny thing is that I’m the only one who eats them! I even tried to give some away to Roxann and John, and they wouldn’t even take some! Good gosh this should be interesting… I guess I need to find some pasta and start cooking homemade sauces or something!! Sigh.. I don’t even know.

Ok, moving on.. soooo.. after we went through, then it was time to roll! At first the families were trickling in, but then before we knew it, it was a steady flow of families making their way around the outside of the room and out the other door headed off to produce. It was amazing. I seriously almost started crying a few times. I wish I could have set up a video camera of this.. maybe I will some day. We’ll see. But for now, let me just say that it was incredible to watch. Families, ranging in age from infants all the way up to grandmas and grandpas, and I’m sure even a great grandma or grandpa even all came in groups. Each person old enough to carry something had some type of container to hold all the food in. For as much food as Marlee and I ended up with, we turned down about half of the line, just because we didn’t need it! So yeh, we saw everything from laundry baskets, to shopping carts (or buggy’s or whatever you call them), to rolling trashcans, rolling coolers, strollers, cardboard boxes, plastic totes, grocery bags, cooler bags, luggage carts, red flyer wagons, backpacks… just about anything that would hold a decent amount of groceries we pretty much saw go through the line.

For as diverse as the food and containers were, the people were just as diverse. I already mentioned they ranged in ages, but also in languages, races, nationalities, etc. I’m pretty positive I even saw a Haitian couple go through the line. I would almost bet my right arm on it, but I didn’t get a chance to speak to them. The line was moving too fast, and before I realized what I was seeing (and hearing!) they had disappeared out the door.

And for as much bread as we had, there were definitely times when I thought we were not going to have enough! As it turned out, the pastries went first, and were eventually followed by the bread and dough that we had bagged up.. but as for the prepackaged bread products we ended up with probably ten or so palates left over..

amazing. Absolutely amazing. I’m still trying to process the whole thing! From the moment we got here, people had been warning us of how crazy Tuesday mornings are, etc, etc.. but really, we were just blow away not by the busyness or the craziness, but at how many people were being touched in such a short amount of time! They said that almost 400 families came through the line today. 400 families.. include parents, children, grandparents, cousins, you name it. How AMAZING is that? And yet, how SAD is that? They say that when this program started 25 years ago, they only had 90 families. And even up until a few years ago when John came, it was only 175. But over the years, and as the economy has declined, it has increased more and more. Yet God is faithful and continues to provide food, even in great abundance of what is needed. It is such an incredible reminder that God is still in control, and will take care of our needs, no matter how down life gets..

After lunch and a quick nap was our first shift in the gym, or Family Life Center, or FLC, or whatever you feel like calling it.. Thom Tom came and showed us the ropes. It was fun, but not much to write about. After that we got to go with Roxann to LA fitness.. ha. Wow. That is a whole other post, let me tell you. Too funny.

Anyways. My laundry is done, and I’m sure most people have tuned out long ago. I’m mucho tired. (Like how my Spanish is improving? Ha) so I’m gonna go grab my stuff outta the dryer and head to bed. Night loves..

Blessings,
~Kat K.