Memorizing the Dessert Cart

One of my favorite moments from the Valentine's Dinner involved two students talking together about their area of service - the parade of sugary wonders known as the Dessert Cart.  If you didn't make it to the dinner this year, you missed out on more than a few wonderful things - including the delicious desserts hand-made by folks from our community and offered in abundance to guests at the Valentine's Dinner.  If you consider yourself a dessert person, the cart made you feel like you were in heaven.

Behind-the-scenes at the dinner, two students were working together to present the dessert tray to our guests.  The elder student, a tall, athletic young lady with a kind heart, and the younger student, an energetic middle school guy, worked together as a team on their dessert cart.  In a gentle way, the young lady asked the guy, "OK - can you name all of the desserts on the cart?"  A little reluctantly but with enthusiasm, the young man started to point at different desserts and say their names.  "Chocolate mousse.  Pecan pie.  Cherry cheesecake."  He had two levels on the cart that he had to cover, so his task wasn't an easy one!  When he stumbled over a name - "Moo-cha tort?" - he was gently corrected by his teammate - "No, that's moe-cah.  Mocha tort."  It was a delight to watch the two of them work together, help each other, and enjoy their service together at a wonderful event.

The Valentine's Dinner is quickly becoming a beloved tradition here at First Pres.  It's a truly intergenerational event - people of all ages and stages in life getting together for dinner in a great setting and for a great cause (all of the proceeds from the dinner benefit student missions, and students who plan on serving on our mission team are required to serve at the dinner).  While I certainly love the high-quality meal we enjoy and the fellowship at each table, my favorite part is watching students serve together and achieve goals they might never have considered possible - like memorizing the items on the dessert cart.  Mission and ministry like this happens because of the grace of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the mercy God gives to each of us because He first loved us.  That's how students like the team I mentioned above could love and serve each other, which then became the foundation for their service to our guests.  I hope this becomes a model for all of us to follow in our life together at FPC.

Solo Dei gloria,

Travis