10.08.21 Outings with the Trinity gang

I enjoyed two special outings this week with my friends from Trinity Baptist, my church. People have asked me why I moved back to Hammond and these folks are a big part of the reason I made the move.

First was our quarterly Sunday School class dinner. Ida has messed up so much in our local lives but it was very nice to do this totally normal thing for a change. My Sunday School class is lead by Spot Traylor. If you don’t know him, he’s a hoot! That’s a high form of praise saying in a gentle way he’s a bunch of laughs and a great crazy guy! Those in our Sunday School class range from being in their 50s to being in their 70s so I fit right in that age range. And we all like to have a good time and have fun!

When we’re in Sunday School we’re suppose to be there to study God’s Word but we usually get some great chatting in also. Having an evening dedicated to lots of chatting and good food was great.

My new very kind friend Joy Porter arranged for us to eat at Johnson’s Kitchen on Pumpkin Center Road in Hammond, right down the street from our church. Since Hurricane Ida they’ve been closing early at 5. They stayed open later for us and we ate and played from 5:30 to after 7:00 pm. Their food was delicious. I’m going to write about them so more people will discover them but that will be for a different day.

There were around 15 of us and between the food being great and the company equally as great I enjoyed myself tremendously. We had the place all to ourselves which is probably good because we can surely cut up and get loud!

The restaurant owner took a photo of all of us! He was so nice and lots of fun to visit with.

Here’s everyone’s name starting on the left in the front! Nolan and Joy Porter, Mike and Johnnie Whisenhunt, me Rosalyn, Norm Desplas, Wilson and Juanita Watts, Cathy and Richard Neher, Spot and Leanna Traylor, Lorrie Hill, Karen and Robert Focken! I love you guys!

When we all left after eating dinner I discovered that I left the car running the entire time we were in there. I saw my lights on while we were inside but never thought I did what I did. And I think I was talking so much that I didn’t want to stop to go turn the lights off. Or I would have found out much earlier that it was still running! I was on empty when I got there so I figure it was just a God thing that I didn’t run out of gas while I was inside the restaurant!

On to my next outing. Our church’s ladies gather monthly to learn about Southern Baptist missionary work and do local missions work to help others. Each year these ladies feed the ravenous students at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Southeastern Louisiana University (where I went to college and worked.) A different Baptist church feeds these kids each week on Thursday. This week was our turn. I’ve been at Trinity for over 30 years and we’ve done it as far back as that.

We always feed them a secret recipe of made from scratch Sloppy Joes. We add chips, dessert, and drink to that. They are always very happy to be fed and it’s always been fun watching them visit with each other.

I learned it takes 21 DOUBLE batches of the recipe to feed all of the students we fed Thursday. That is 42 pounds of ground meat! It’s a big bunch of kids and some like seconds! Our church has used the same recipe for years and while I’ve served food a lot in the past this is my first year cooking “the recipe.”

I’m not sure if it is a real “secret” recipe but I won’t share just in case. But I can say it is so delicious that I am making a quadruple batch for our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Christmas will be a normal turkey dinner but this seems like fun and I believe the kids will enjoy it!

We prepared and handed out over 150 containers of food! Several of our young college folks from church were there and we got to visit with them a bit which was really nice. Most of them are in the photos below behind the Trinity ladies that served the food. The ladies are in the front and are: Starting with Laurie Green in the blue God shirt, me, Liz Martin, BJ Smith and behind her to the right is Donna Summers.

Here we are wearing our masks, we tried to do the right thing!

And here we are all cute and smiling without those awful masks!

It was a lot of fun serving these kids along with the Trinity ladies and young folks. I look forward to doing this again next time.

These are just two huge benefits to moving back to Hammond. Being able to participate in things like this is a blessing to me. Tomorrow I am attending Jonah Kyle Traylor’s (the tallest guy in the photos above) Southeastern graduation party at the church and am really looking forward to celebrating with that young man!

Ya’ll have a great weekend! Rosalyn