Dirty, Scruffy Ministry

The title says it all, The Gathering's Soup Kitchen is a dirty, scruffy ministry which demands one gets one's hands dirty, and after running for nearly three years, and getting to know so many regulars, it's impossible not to get one's hands dirty, and do you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way!

Thursdays are brilliant (and even better in term time when our Homework Club is running).  I spend most of the morning making the soup and then in the afternoon I get to prepare the venue and then serve the soup (normally with help from Joel and one or two church members), whilst Errol provides a semblance of order outside and encourages passers-by to partake.  He's a natural evangelist.

It's very easy to look at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen and think what a nice piece of work it is without fully appreciating just how serious a need it fulfils.  It's also easy to look at the pics of the many kids that regularly come and think how cute they look, but again it's all too easy to miss just how serious the need in the community is for The Gathering's Soup Kitchen.
On Thursday, as we began serving our regulars the temperature was still in the +30°C range, making it a far from ideal evening for soup. However, we still served 75 people who came and we filled a few pots too which we took to various houses in the community.

Many who come regularly are on the fringes of society and very much marginalised and looked down upon which makes them just my kind of people. I truly love being able to serve and make a tiny bit of difference for these guys.

Some of our regular kids, it's a privilege to serve them


After a hard day scavenging through other people's bins, it's time to pack up the kids and go home.


Unusually, last night we had about 15 litres of soup leftover so we were able to bless the local night shelter with it, so we fed many more people than we'll ever know.