Minnesota Prairie Roots

Be present at our table, Lord, be here and everywhere adored, These mercies bless, and grant that we may feast in fellowship with Thee.

Guests file through the serving line at the free Community Christmas dinner.

PERHAPS THEY NOTICED the words above the church basement kitchen window, perhaps they didn’t. But the hundreds of diners who filed through the serving line at the annual Community Christmas Dinner at Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church in Faribault on Sunday, were blessed…

…by the men and women and youth who served them

a delicious meal

in the wonderful company of folks like Mike and Sue, high school sweethearts who met at the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind in Faribault and who have been married nearly 31 years.

Diners were blessed by organized volunteers who leave detailed notes so that this dinner flows seemingly flawlessly.

They were blessed, too, with a hardworking kitchen crew that works behind the scenes preparing food, washing dishes and kettles, etc.,

and by team members with a sense of humor (as written on this volunteer’s apron).

Uplifting basement banners offer words of blessing.

Sweet blessings come in cakes baked, per these special instructions and brought to the church basement,

and then frosted with whipped topping and sprinkled with colored sugar,

before Madeline and others serve the Christmas cake, the same dessert that’s served every year at the Christmas dinner.

Blessings come in the company of others in the warmth of this church basement on a cold December day in Minnesota.

These waiting women were blessed, too, by a driver bringing the vehicle close to the door for their ride home.

The members of the historic 1915 Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church

bless the community of Faribault each December by opening church doors for the annual Community Christmas Dinner.

Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling