July 8th we were faced with another Shabbat and the prospects of having our fellowship dinner was not looking good. We cannot afford to rent a bus every Friday nor can we afford people possibly getting hurt over a Shabbat meal.

Also, the lady who owns the Russian Restaurant next door said she wanted to talk to us about these Friday night dinners. And that her daughter would be here at 4 p.m. to translate.

You see, Monday is market day and it’s what the shops in this part of town live for. They stay open the rest of the week in hopes of making a shekel or two, but Monday’s their big day. They love the King’s Men because we have 30 to 50 regulars on a daily bases who occasionally spend a little money.

As for the restaurant next door, it does birthday and private parties on Fridays and Saturdays, and is virtually dead the rest of the week. With all this commotion we’ve been having, I can imagine the negative effects it must have had on her Fridays and at four o’clock I’m sure I’d hear all about it.

I told Lura, “looks like we have to cancel the Friday night dinners.” “Let’s see what the lady next door has to say first, before telling everyone the sad news.”

Four o’clock came, and we met with the ladies. Bottom-line: she invited us to have our dinners in her restaurant, any day of the week, 20 shekels per person (plus 17% food tax). Wow! God has taken us from rags to riches!

Although she gave us the pick of any day, including Friday, we decided on Mondays (one of her dead days). We passed the word and immediately changed Friday the 8th dinner to today the 11th!

It was a huge success! A win-win proposition all the way around!

We kicked things off by sponsoring 15 people (out of pocket expense) plus 5 people who payed…a total of 20 customers.

The poor will be with us always! Twenty meals once a week is a good thing! I’d like to put it up as a ‘project’ or a need. Who knows, we may even get these meals sponsored.

Anyhow, I will do the math and post it soon!

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