Ray of Hope Mission Center

It is quite a common phrase that is heard in many families that have children. "I want that, buy that for me, I have to have that." After hearing that for over a thousand plus times, my wife has started responding with "how about being thankful for what you have." By this point it was obvious that they had developed dad's wonderful selective hearing and was not hearing or ignoring her response.

She decided that was time for a lesson in life. She contacted the wonderful people at the Ray of Hope Mission Center to see if they needed some help with their free Thanksgiving meal that they provide every year. They accepted our help and asked us to be there at 2:30pm. So the Zane gang got the opportunity to help others less fortunate than them by serving meals and cleaning tables. The kids did a fantastic job. They saw people anywhere from a few months old to senior citizens in need of a free warm meal. They even saw a few kids their own age. After the meals stopped at 6pm, they were given the job of helping clean up.

It was great hearing the compliments from the people who stopped in for a meal and the other volunteers about how nice, polite and hard working the children were (couldn't be same children we have home). By the end of the day, I would like to think that the children learned something. Be thankful for what you have and don't worry about what you don't have. They weren't the only ones to learn a lesson yesterday, parents sometimes can learn new lessons.

PS - Its been almost 24 hours since serving dinner yesterday, not a single "I want" today. I guess that they do listen sometimes.