Serve Day

Our Bulembu Community Church’s men’s ministry holds a Serve Day one Saturday a month where they get together and work on a project for the community. In the past, they have collected and distributed firewood, helped with rubbish clean-up, and other acts of service. This past Saturday they volunteered their time to prepare the breakfast for our children’s homes at our central kitchen.

More than a Meal

17 men of all ages came together to assist the central kitchen staff in preparing breakfast for the day. The central kitchen is located across from our bakery on the main road in town. The staff begin at 4 am every day to prepare ingredients, sanitise cooking equipment, and begin making meals. They make over 1,200 meals a day!

However, there’s more.

Afterward, they were able to make the lunches for the day, and also prepare the ingredients for dinner because they finished so quickly and efficiently. In all, they chopped and cleaned 35 chickens, an assortment of vegetables; chopped and stored a sizeable pile of firewood, cleaned the outdoor cast iron cooking pots, and sorted the impurities out of over 10 bags of beans–by hand.

This Serve Day that began with the aim of serving preparing breakfast turned into an opportunity to serve the kitchen staff in unexpected ways. Seventeen people can do a lot more than two people! One of the staff said, “This feels like a vacation!”

It was a special moment to see how God can meet needs we are not aware of simply by being present and available. After the preparations were complete, our men loaded the meals, distributed them to our two dining halls, and enjoyed a hearty breakfast with our kids.