Friends and Food

One of my favourite events in our inner city calendar is a bi-weekly potluck.  To be honest, I don't make it nearly every time, but I often leave feeling encouraged, supported and in community with like-minded people living in the inner city.

There are many forms of potlucks, as outreaches, as invitations for neighbours, as church functions.  This specific one is to encourage and strengthen believers who choose to live or work in our inner city neighbourhood.  Some are full-time missionaries.  Some are stay-at-home moms, some are unemployed or underemployed - some by choice, some not.  Some have decent careers outside the community, but choose to live here anyway.  We are a varied group, with really only two things in common: our love of Christ and our love of Winnipeg's inner city.

We each bring something to share to eat - well, that's the intent.  If you forget, or don't have anything, feel free to come anywway.  Moms like me tend to bring huge crockpots of some staple food, and this last potluck, only a few loaves of bread made it to supplement that one dish, but that's okay.  We eat what there is and don't worry about it if we're not stuffed at the end - we're here for fellowship more than food, anyway.

One of the hardest things about relocating to the inner city is the feelings of loneliness, of losing your peer group (and sometimes, your church or family as well) and the feelings of insecurity and isolation that accompany it.  Our little potlucks are so... unremarkable... yet they battle those emotions with the strength of a giant.  Praise the Lord for working in little ways!