A Message from "Sweet Mama"

Jeremiah 29:11-14 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.”

We came to Spring Arbor Baptist Church in February for our advance planning trip. These wonderful people asked me what they could do to help us prepare. I gave them a list of supplies that they could work on before we came. I started to do my shopping the Wednesday after Memorial Day and called to see what they had collected that I would not need to purchase. Following is the list of supplies that they told me they had collected.

14 cases of bottled water, 572 rolls toilet tissue, 189 rolls of paper towels, 322 plastic cups, 1,304 8oz. Foam cups, 1000 12oz. Foam cups, 500 16oz. Foam cups, 170 garbage bags, 1 gallon hand soap, 38 small bowls, 1,123 gallon zip lock bags, 104 quart zip lock bags, 513 mixed forks, spoons, knives, 1,104 spoons, 100 knives, 4,000 napkins, 3 rolls aluminum foil, 1 roll plastic wrap. What an amazing collection from this church!

Baron had sent me a check for $2,000.00 to buy our supplies. This is what Baron does every year. What was distressing to me was seeing the price of groceries going up every week. I took the check and I put it on the table and I prayed over it and told God that He knew what I needed and to bless our buying and help us to buy wisely. Because – you builders know why we want to spend as little as we can. The church people will know when Friday night rolls around. Baron gives me more as I need it and we have had to get an additional $1,000.00. To feed this many people on $3,000.00 to me is an awesome thing. Anyway, God began to bless and hear my pleas. I hope that I have not left anything out on my “food journey” because it is awesome to see what God has done. In addition to the many supplies listed above, God worked miracles in the following ways:

When we were here in February on the advance trip, one of Spring Arbor’s men, Mark Vinson, asked me if we had to buy beef. I told him that we had to buy roasts and hamburger meat. He said that he raised cattle on the side and if he could sell enough steaks off some steers, he could probably sell us our beef for around $1.00 per pound. I was elated! I got a call the week before our trip, and Mark told me that God had blessed him and he had sold steaks off of six steers and that he was going to donate our meat (a $300.00 savings on our food budget). His beef is all grain fed – no hormones. It was wonderful meat and all the builders enjoyed it!

Esther Jernigan, my assistant, is a Registered Nurse at Athens-Limestone Hospital in Athens, Alabama. She talked to the buyer in the cafeteria and they let us buy supplies at their cost. We got precooked bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits, macaroni – items too numerous to mention at their cost which was considerably lower than we could get at Sam’s or the grocery store. In addition to this, they donated creamer, salt, pepper, and threw in extras of some of the supplies we had bought.

I spoke with Darrell Lee, manager of Hometown Grocery in Athens and he gave me meat and fruit at discounted prices. I picked those up on my way to the jobsite Thursday morning, June 7th. God is so good!

The wonderful family next door to Spring Arbor at the Vets Office offered us their commercial kitchen and their food hall. It turned out that the folks here at Spring Arbor had done such a good job preparing for us that we did not need their facilities, but God had provided in case we needed those facilities.

When we got here, my wonderful buyer Cindy McKee, went to Foodland to pick up supplies. In addition to the discounted prices they had called and quoted me, they gave us additional discounts. Local people – please support your Foodland! The manager at Dollar General donated several things and told us if we needed more to come and see her.

Saturday, a couple from the Methodist Church stopped by – she is a caterer – she wanted to know if she could fix fried rice for any of our meals. Tuesday night of our week, she prepared fried rice to go with our Southwest Chicken (we fed 125 people), saving us the cost of buying more potatoes.

A couple of Spring Arbor women were going to Wal-Mart and asked if I needed anything. I gave them a $50 bill and told them to bring me 100 slices of Pepper jack Cheese for our chicken and some mushrooms – they returned and brought the cheese and mushrooms, along with our $50 bill. They would not accept the money. I had to watch what I would say because those ladies would run out and get it.

Monday morning, an unchurched gentleman by the name of Johnny Lynch pulled his truck off the road and came and asked me if we could use anything out of his garden. I asked him what he had – Monday night we had some of his food – red potatoes (freshly dug), fried squash, onion, cabbage, and enough zucchini to prepare for two additional meals. He came back on Thursday and we got even more fresh vegetables.

Tuesday morning Jason Calvert and Tim Sexton, former employees of Pepsi, went to Pepsi and picked up a pallet of water (36 cases), 1-1/2 cases of Gatorade mix, enough coffee to make 38 pots, loads of paper drink cups from both Pepsi and Coke. All donated!!!! Isn’t God good?

Also on Tuesday, Boots and Willis, a Spring Arbor couple, came to the jobsite with a big pail of fresh strawberries and two cantaloupes.

On Thursday morning of our week, a local man, Gerald Hatley, had seen what was going on and wanted to be a part of it. He had to work, but he had his friend, Jimmy Hartsfield, bring us 28 watermelons. Be careful what you pray for – God will supply!!!!!!!!!!

We supply our people working on the building with frozen grapes and lots of water and Gatorade to keep them hydrated. Ruth Craig, our person in charge of this, had told me that we were out of grapes. I told her that we could not buy any more – I simply could not go over $3,000.00 for our food. No sooner had I gotten this out of my mouth until two ladies, Dot Mintz and Jimmie Ann Colley, came in the back of our tent with two cases of grapes. We were able to leave a refrigerator freezer full of grapes for the Indiana Team, arriving a week after our team.

When my buyer, Cindy McKee, went to Foodland to purchase more ice, the men at Foodland told them to bring the coolers into the back and they could have ice out of their icemaker, free of charge. For two days, we did not have to buy ice for the coolers to ice down our bottled water. Again, saving us lots of money.

On Friday evening when we had our dedication service, we were able to give Spring Arbor Baptist Church more than $4,000.00 for the building of their church.

Our week, we fed many more people than we had expected to feed and earlier than we expected to feed them – I am telling you this to let you see God at work! It is awesome – every day I cannot wait to see what God is going to do the next day! Every night when I lay down, I thank Him for our blessings and ask Him to give us some more blessings the next day. He never failed!!!!!!!!!

Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thought. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” That is my prayer.
Jane McKee (Sweet Mama)
Chief Cook