Feeding the Masses at Our Church Ministry Dinner

Well, maybe not the masses, but a mass of people enjoyed a turkey dinner on December 10th at First United Methodist Church in Muleshoe.

This is the fourteenth year we have invited quite a variety of people to share a meal with us: residents of the nursing home, Meals on Wheels recipients and carriers, Harmon Elliot/Muleshoe Housing Authority residents, community volunteers from Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, the fire department, police, hospital volunteers, people with limited mobility, people who might be going through a rough time, people who need someone to wish them a Merry Christmas, people we wanted to remember during the Christmas season.

Our pastor Mindy McLanahan and Jay Messenger.

This dinner all began when the church was looking for a hands-on ministry to the community, touching lives and, we hope, making a difference. According to Jay Messenger, it is a way for church members to share their blessings with others, and in the process, be blessed themselves.

Toby and Raelyn Kitchens loaded with carry-out deliveries to make.

The first year of the dinner Jay and Victor Leal got things started, served 125 people, and ran out of food before the workers could share in the bounty. This year 380 plates were filled, 280 of them being delivered. Meals are always delivered, but this year marked an unusually large number of deliveries due to the cold weather. For several years running the number of meals served has reached anywhere from 400 to 450.

Magann Rennels looks over the delivery lists.

Bill makes a delivery to Mae Bell.

Invitations go out to people, but Magann Rennels is one of the volunteers who is key in making the deliveries a success.  Over the years she has generated a master list and makes over 200 calls  and does not ask people if they would like to be served; instead she asks how many plates do you need? She knows all the tricky little details, like who is hard of hearing and will need several knocks or rings of the door bell, who has trouble walking and will need time to answer the door, and where some hard to find houses are located.

Cliff Black is in charge of the food.

This meal does not rely on committees or weeks of detailed preparations, which is part of the appeal and the success of the project. All of the work is more of less done behind the scenes, which makes it easy to participate and share with the community. Jay waits until someone asks, innocently, “Are we going to have the ministry dinner again this year,” which sets the wheels in motion. Jay makes announcements during church, volunteers sign up on their own for various jobs, Cliff Black takes care of the details of the food, Magann makes the calls, the KFC (Kids For Christ after-school program) kids make cards or refrigerator magnets to deliver with the meals, and it all mysteriously comes together.

Bill and I made some deliveries, so lots of people came and left while we were gone, but here is just a sampling of the activity during the dinner.

So next year someone will again wonder if we are going to do the ministry dinner, and sure enough, we will do the dinner again. And everyone will go home with their tummies full and their hearts blessed. And that’s a good thing.

Merry Christmas!

 

Thanks to Jay Messenger for helping with information for this article.

The Muleshoe Golf Team Goes to Regional

A Georgia native son may have won the Masters, but here in West Texas we are more excited about five local heroes placing second in district and traveling  next week to tee off in the regional tournament.

The district meet was held this year at the Muleshoe Country Club Monday, April 9th, with teams from Idalou, Friona, Dimmitt, Littlefield, Tulia, and Abernathy participating along with Muleshoe.  The Idalou team won first,  Muleshoe placed second, Friona third, and we were very proud that Colten placed third individually, so he was the third place medalist.

Colten, Mateo Castillo, Beau Avila, Eli Leal, Matthew Dickerson.

Mari likes golf, too, so she and Bill did their part and made up the gallery following Colten’s group as they played the last nine holes.  I showed up just in time to see him finish the ninth hole because I was told not to take any pictures during play for fear of distracting him. What fun is that?

And then I discover that Bill took pictures anyway!

Coach Carey Sudduth, who has been the golf coach for the past seven years, says this is probably the fifteenth year the Mules have made it to the regional level, and the tournament rotates between Midland and Odessa. This year it will be at Odessa’s Ratliff Ranch, which is basically a links-style course. You were expecting azaleas? This is West Texas, for crying out loud! So we are hoping for blue skies, sunny weather, and just a hint of wind.

Go Mules!

Playoff Info and The Water Tower Story

The Mules will play River Road in Plainview on Friday, November 13, at 7 pm. Hmm, Friday the 13th... bad for River Road, right?

Now, that water tower story. The game between Friona and Muleshoe in the 2000 football season was no less anticipated than last Friday's game, and the Mules won that one, too, 23-14. Four of the boys on that team, the team that made history by making it to the state semifinals that year, thought that game should also be immortalized in history. Well, that and they wanted to rub it in just a bit. So they did what seemed like a really good idea at the time. They gathered paint, necessary equipment, and left under cover of darkness on a road trip to Friona. And sure enough, the rest is history. That score stayed up there for several years; it's probably still up there for all I know, but I haven't looked lately; the water tower is not on my usual path through town.

It is, however, close to the nursing home, which is how the painters were IDed. Seems some folks at the nursing home were able to get the painters' license plate number and alerted the Friona police department, who alerted the Muleshoe police department, who called the perpetrators in for a little visit. I wasn't there, but it seems restitution was discussed, a fine imposed, and punishment in the form of painting over their own handiwork was considered, but in the end, the original artwork was preserved as motivation for future Chieftain teams when Muleshoe showed up on their schedule again.

Names will not be mentioned to protect the guilty, but I don't think it is any secret in Muleshoe who did it. It is one of those war stories that is remembered fondly. Just ask Lincoln, Jeff, Kyle, or Chance.

Oops. Did I say too much?

The bright lights of Muleshoe are shining like diamonds, like ten thousand jewels in a line

Greetings from Muleshoe, the garden spot of West Texas… that’s a joke, for those of you not familiar with West Texas terrain. But since I have a stroll-through cactus garden in my front yard, I feel like I can lay claim to the garden spot of West Texas part.

Since my husband pulled me kicking and screaming into the 21st century with the gift of a wonderful digital camera in 2007 for my trip to Mount Kilimanjaro, I thought I should press on, undaunted, with my walk into the world of technology by starting a blog. So here goes.

Why “The Bright Lights of Muleshoe,” you may ask? Does a town with a name like Muleshoe even have electricity? Well, let me tell you…

We moved from Edna, Texas, to Muleshoe, Texas, in 1980 when Bill, my generous aforementioned husband, took over the CEO position of the Federal Land Bank Association, having been the assistant CEO in the Edna office. I had been teaching and coaching at Edna Junior High and had just finished earning my Master of Education degree from University of Houston, Victoria. My carpool to that campus consisted of the athletic director/head coach, two other high school coaches and an assistant principal, and when one of the coaches drove, the music of choice on the radio was country. Willie Nelson and Wayland Jennings were the order of the day, having made a name for themselves as outlaws of the genre at the time, so I came to enjoy their music as well. And so it was that I was exposed to Willie’s “Red-Headed Stranger” album on those trips.

So on moving day, by the time my family made it to Muleshoe it was no longer day. Night had fallen and as we drove we were encircled with lights in the distance, Portales, NM, to the southwest, Friona to the north, and Muleshoe right in front of us. And then it hit me. The bright lights of Denver were shining like diamonds, like ten thousand jewels in the sky.* I know. It wasn’t Denver and the lights weren’t in the sky, but it fit.

We’ve been here now 29 years and the lights still sparkle all around us every time we come in on Highway 84, just like that first night. Much of Bailey County and Muleshoe are located in Blackwater Valley, which of course, is what allows that line of lights to be so prominently displayed on the horizon. And people think it is just flat up here! Now there are even more lights in a line, mostly from the many dairies that have moved into the area, but the lyrics still fit and the sight is still intriguing.

So if you are interested, dear readers that might stumble onto this blog, I would like to share with you what those bright lights of Muleshoe are all about. Stay with me-football is next. The Mules are the defending state 2A champs, ya’ know.

*”Denver,” from The Red-Headed Stranger; by Willie Nelson. Columbia Records/ CBS, Inc.; 51 W. 52 Street, New York. 1975.