January 2024
After the Christmas and NYE break we ran into lots of bad weather, we had to cancel our first family dinner due to flooding and a tornado watch!! The following week we were iced in, but we put a message out to send us addresses and we door drop dinner! Rick and I loaded up the truck with lasagna to go boxes and delivered to 15 different families and 2 motels…it was a good night!
Finally the weather cleared and we got to start having dinner back in the park!! And, our first volunteer organization, Mom’s of America joined us to serve, thanks y’all! It was a crazy month of weather, but it was good to be back in the park and feeding God’s people. And, we were honored with 2023 Non-Profit of the year from Washington County Chamber of Commerce. Thank you to everyone that voted and picked us, we love living our dash.
February 2024
The month of love began with 400 hand made truffles by Bentley and Grandma! Over the last year our volunteer opportunities have grown with story time and crafts! The kids are loving story time and making crafts, and the parents enjoy the extra time to visit! For Valentine’s Brenham’s ECLC joined us to serve and brought cupcakes and all the fixings for everyone to make their own. It was a fun night. One of my favorite night’s was February 19th, when we decided to move the prayer table, blessing bags, bibles and resources to the other side of the pavilion. We usually have those tables right as you walk into the pavilion but the Lord told me to cast the net to the other side and that night we got to pray with more people than we have before! It was a precious time, thanks to the men of St. Matthew’s for serving with us! To end the month the Brenham High School Bowling Team joined us to serve, it was everyone’s favorite menu, nacho’s and birthday cake! Grateful to everyone that continues to support us to serve over 600 this month!
March 2024
Phew, it was a full month at the park! Spring Break, beautiful weather, and Easter! We have seen an influx in the amount of to-go plates and we wondered, how can we make a deeper impact? So, we began writing scripture and words of encouragement on the to-go plates. We wish that everyone would stay around the table at the park but we don’t know what seeds have been planted. God is always working when we can’t see. Thanks to Brenham Next and Gordon Foods for serving with us! For Easter, Wonderhill Farms joined us and hid 2500 Easter Eggs, there were kids every where! The carousel was open and they brought their miniature donkey, Brewster!! It was heaven on earth! A huge thank you to BVCASA for sponsoring the month of March, y’all made it possible to serve over 1,000 family members in the park alone. We saw a growth in our blessing bag needs and are passing out 20-40 a night! Thanks to Harvest House Publishing House for donating a months worth of devotionals for everyone to enjoy!!
April 2024
We love April in the park, the weather is cooler, flowers are blooming and the sound of children laughing fills the air! The Blinn Baseball team came out to serve with us a few nights, these guys were the best! They got down on the ground with the kiddos to play games and poured into them. First United Methodist Church joined us and served, we are grateful for their monthly commitment to serving at family dinner. Pioneer BBQ’s whole team cooked dinner, donated and served one delicious meal!! Being the end of April in Brenham, Maifest was happening and we moved dinner to Henderson Park! We had a n amazing turn out. Our Daughter’s House donated hamburger meat for burgers and helped serve!! We celebrated birthday’s and embraced cooler weather and the table! We got to serve over 1000 people in the month of April.
May 2024
Maifest was still going on in May and we stayed at Henderson Park one more Monday!! Brenham Charcuterie came over and helped us serve spaghetti and all the fixin's! Due to the weather, we had to cancel one night, but ended up making up 75 to go plates for Brenham Pregnancy Center for their mom and dad group.
We moved back to Fireman’s Park and it felt like home!!! Brenham Abstract partnered with us and came to serve nacho’s one night, everyone’s fav! For Memorial Day we showed up, it was a small group of our sweet regular members, but so glad we did!
In May we held our 2nd Annual Gather n Grace Gala and boy did God show up! Nearly 250 friends and family showed up to love, encourage, and support. Family members shared their testimonies, we gathered around the table and shared a fabulous steak dinner, a live music with our dear friend, Brandon Rhyder and one heck of a live auction! My favorite auction item was a handprinted guitar, named Ginger Jean (Jean was my mom’s middle name) and signed by a close friend, Lyle Lovett! We were able to raise $50,000 to continue Gather n Grace.
Thanks to y’all’s kindness we were able to serve 500 in May, it’s always a slower month, but won’t change a thing!
Summer RECAP 2024
What a summer we had, it felt like a party every Monday night!!! Thank you to The South Central Board of Realtors for serving & providing BBQ sandwiches for over 200 to kick off the summered! We got to go on a family vacation!!!
We had our first school’s out for summer bash, fun was definitely had by all!! Kona Ice came to serve and donated over 200 snow cones, 500 hot dogs, face painting, the carousel’s & BVCASA brought 400 snack filled back packs. Brenham Children’s Museum brought their amazing mobile museum and the kiddos from Becoming Better came to serve and. help, they are awesome!!
We are grateful to The Texas Beef Women for coming to serve and donate $500 towards continuing our mission of building community around the table!
We had a generous sponsor provide fried chicken for 250 one night and we celebrated June birthday’s!! We are so grateful for Brenham Children’s Museum for coming to serve with us, it was a busy night of fellowship around the table.
July was hot but it definitely could have been HOTTER!!!! The new NCL Texas Bluebells joined us in serving, helping with crafts, playing with the kiddos. We are grateful for this wonderful organization, they have teamed up in sponsoring and filling blessing bags. We usually pass out 20-30 every night.
We experienced a hurricane in the middle of July, and had to cancel dinner! What we love is connecting with other organizations to share what they're gifting. The City of Brenham hosts a movie in the park, so one night they provided a blow up movie of Shark Tale. We had fish tacos, popcorn and candy for everyone!
Y’all all day the rain was going around us, but as everyone piled under the pavilion the rain began to pour! It didn’t stop anyone, it was a beautiful night of serving nearly 200.
As the summer came to an end we went out with a bang!! The Citadel Christian Academy rented out Silver Wings Ballroom and everyone was invited! We took a few to go plates to the park for those that didn’t hear about moving to the skating rink. Well, we planned for 300 and asked Jesus to multiply the food! He definitely did, we got to serve 435 people.
Our final Monday Family Dinner before school started we had a back to school bash! Legacy Texas Realty Group and Uptown Rootz provided Kona Ice for everyone, we served everyone’s favorite, nacho bar!!!! BVCASA supplied backpacks, and Anatomy Boutique had fun putting patches on everyone's backpacks!! We have been talking about providing hair cuts since last year and this year it became a reality!! Thanks to Cyndi Riley, Emily Tozka, Ashley Steeken of Uptown Roots and everyone at Primo’s Barber Shop for hair cuts for all!!! And, thanks to PFLAG support group for serving with us!
Fall and Winter 2024
During the Summer we served sandwiches at the splash pad on Friday’s. That led us to seeing a need for meal deliveries to the home bound. Over the fall and winter we served between 35 to 50 every Tuesday with home bound deliveries. But, it also opened up the door to just sit, most of the homebound just wanted someone to sit and listen. Isn’t that something we all need?
We took a week off after our back to school bash and did to go’s only and still got to serve 107. Food scarcity is definitely all around Brenham. School was back in full swing and parents love a chance to have a night off from cooking. Adult Teen Challenge and The National Charity League joined us to serve and Kona Ice graciously came to serve 150 sno cones, we are grateful for our community partners linking arms with us to serve God’s people! August was still hot but we served up everyone’s favorite one night, sloppy joe’s and PIE!!
Labor Day was a quiet one but we still celebrated with 100 family members with pizza and birthday cake for the month of September. Brenham Pregnancy Center has partnered with us every 2nd Tuesday of the month with diapers, prayer and formula! It’s a wonderful time. First United Methodist joined us to serve and Brenham Children’s Museum brought their mobile museum, the kids loved it!!!! The Washington County Fair happens every September and Paige Marth, a fair queen nominee, graciously donated 50 season passes!!! She came to pass them out and take pictures with the kids! Thank you to New Beginnings Church, Washington County Cares and St. Matthew’s for coming to serve with us.
We thought October would bring cooler temperatures, but TEXAS! Thanks so much to First United Methodist and Washington County Cares for serving with us and to Brenham Pregnancy Center for bringing diapers and formula!! We celebrated birthday’s and served 650 in the month of October. One of our favorite memories was our Community Fish Fry with Chris McIIvary and other local fisherman! These guys caught, cleaned and fried enough fish on site for over 200!
November brought cooler temperatures and the hint of fall, it’s such a wonderful time under the pavilion! For Veteran’s Day, First United Methodist served with us, Brenham Pregnancy Center brought formula and diapers and we began collecting toys for Toys for Tots and Cereal for Brenham Middle School’s food pantry! And, THANKSGIVING at The Cannery. We took the Monday of Thanksgiving week off so we could begin preparing for Thanksgiving Day, we got to serve 660 locals through home deliveries, in house dining and to go plates. We served turkey and gravy, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread stuffing, bread and cinnamon butter, and pies! Thanks to the National Charity League and our Gather n Grace volunteers for hosting and serving on Thanksgiving.
Boy, December came quick! We had a fun Christmas season! The Jr. Heritage Belles came to serve. Seidel Schroeder sponsored and served dinner one night, while Santa came to see the kiddos and the Brenham Fire Dept. came with a fire truck for the kids!! We continued our collection of toys for Toys for Tots and the amazing Cub Band and Cub Baseball Team brought boxes of toys and cereal they had collected! We filled over 6 Toys for Tots boxes, it was amazing. Wouldn’t be Christmas without Karaoke with Anastasia, the kids loved it! Story time made its way back and the Brenadiers danced us out of the year!
Thank y’all for a wonderful year in the park, we are grateful we get to sit with y’all. Because of our kind donors and volunteers we were able to serve over 10,000 through family dinner, food pantry casseroles and our to go plate deliveries on Tuesdays.