When Is a Sandwich Not a Sandwich?
by Pam Palmer, Mission Journalist
They look like ordinary sandwiches. Two slices of bread with layers of lettuce, tomato, and cheese, and piles of sandwich meat, egg salad, or tuna salad in between. But to those who made them, members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s (GSLC) Salvation Army mission team, they are handmade packages of love and care that are part of building the body of Christ. Once a month, members of GSLC makes sandwiches, to help feed some 300-500 of Salt Lake City’s homeless people, for the Salvation Army at the Catholic Community Services Community Dining Room (CDR) across from the Road Home homeless shelter south of The Gateway.
"The ones Christ ministered to are people from all walks of life,” says Lindy Carlton, a member of the mission committee at GSLC. Lindy is part of the dozens of church members who team up to serve the dinner meal and offer God's peace at CDR from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the third Sunday of every month. Congregation members donate fresh fruit or make sandwiches from two loaves of bread that are delivered to the church by 3 p.m. on the third Sunday. Other members go to the CDR to pass out trays, ladle soup, and serve a choice of sandwiches, a dessert, and beverages. A few team members also offer willing dining room patrons communion, prayers with anointing oil, and English and Spanish pocket bibles.
Lindy first served sandwiches about 10 years ago on his birthday, and he has been serving in the ministry ever since. “I fell in love with serving them,” he says. “It’s like a moral compass. After a few weeks away from serving I forget how blessed I am. I get caught up in worldly things, my struggles, what I don’t have. Once there, I again realize how blessed I am and how much I do have. I have a house to go home to. I have a car. I go to my pantry and take food out for someone who would go hungry if I didn’t give them something to eat, and I’m able to go back home and still have something to eat in my pantry.”
GSLC has brought beneficial additions to the Salvation Army’s dining program over the years. “We give them a choice of sandwiches because there are so few choices in their lives”. GSLC also began donating fresh fruit like oranges and bananas, which are easy on dental problems, and more seasonal fruit like grapes and melons. A “pickle ministry” began with a jar of pickles, and members brought ice tea one summer when temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When servers began running out of coffee provided by the Salvation Army, GSLC members brought the church’s big coffee urn to the dining room to keep the hot beverage flowing, and the team has since added tea and hot cocoa for the patrons. Here again is another opportunity to offer the diners a choice. A few times a year the team is able to offer new socks and hygiene kits. GSLC has also donated coats, hats, gloves, and many other articles of clothing.
One Saturday during prayer at GSLC, a prayer team member said the Lord told her to serve communion to the Salvation Army dining patrons. The team agreed and now three or four members offer to serve communion, or pray using anointing oil, or are blessed through donating bibles. This is the area of service where Lindy has gravitated. “We feed them living water and the bread of life. They will eat sandwiches, but they’ll be hungry tomorrow. We need to give them the bread and water that will cause them to hunger no more.” Often team members hear patrons say they aren’t worthy of communion. “I haven’t been to confession” is a common reply they give. The response is, “I’m not worthy either. I’ve sinned since I took communion this morning, it’s my nature; we’re human. That’s why God wants you to come to Him.” Once you explain it to them, some of them will say, “OK.”
In the cacophony of hundreds of voices, banging trays, and shuffling feet filling the dining hall, the team unfortunately sees many of the same faces month after month. We feel kinship with many of the people we serve. Others struggle with mental disabilities, alcoholism, or narcotics addictions. A few are transients, like the woman passing through Salt Lake City recently on her way home to Indianapolis from Las Vegas where she had visited her son. Lindy heard how it had taken her a month to get to Las Vegas in the spring. She expected the same travel time to return. Most of us would fly in a plane for a few hours to get there. Unfortunately many new faces seen are unemployed people and families hit hard by the recession these past few years. “They can either pay the rent or buy food. So they end up at a soup kitchen.”
Seeing the Spirit alive and active, witnessing God's work in the dining patrons’ lives is what humbles the mission team members. A Prayer Team member once slowly approached a man who was suffering severely, rocking and chanting, staring down at the table. “I felt he was possessed by demons. Whether they were satanic or it was an illness, I don’t know.” Standing behind him, the PT member put out his palms toward the man’s shoulders and poured out his heart in prayer, asking the Spirit to calm him. “And the Spirit did! For that one moment the man grew silent and had peace.” Today that man is better, and while he still does not speak to others, he smiles and nods at the PT member. Last month a team member gave Lindy a piece of paper with a woman’s name written on it. The woman wanted to get a message to Lindy thanking him for praying with her. “She said I had given her support,” says Lindy, “and led the Spirit to her so she was able to go on and be uplifted by God. This is how God works in helping people. I now carry that piece of paper in my bible.”
The next time you open your refrigerator or pantry to get something to eat, consider volunteering to make sandwiches or donate fruit for the Salvation Army. It’s a very fulfilling and rewarding experience to do Gods work. It is awesome to be the Lord’s vessel, to be his hands and feet here on earth.”
Who would have ever imagined that the body of Christ could take shape from merely serving a sandwich.
