A meal for the mums

‘Aspley Evangelical Church Toddler group is a great place to be,’ says Helen Baird.

‘We have around 20 families who meet with us each Wednesday morning and although our group is smaller than some others, we like it that way. It enables us to get to know everyone really well and build up friendships with them, so that we can demonstrate the love of Jesus to them and their children. We have seen many mums come and go; babies grow into toddlers and then leave us for school and nursery.

‘Recently, however, we wanted to try and take things ‘up a level’. We decided to do something really simple and ask them to come and share a meal with us one evening – no hidden agenda, no speaker and, for once, no children! Just an evening of food, friendship and fun.

‘We decided to combine the evening with an ‘On the menu’ fundraising event for the Christian charity Cry in the Dark, which helps orphans in Romania. Friends are invited for a home-cooked meal and they then anonymously contribute whatever they think the meal is worth to the charity.

‘So we set about creating a tempting menu with a choice of melon, soup, roasted vegetable and Parmesan risotto, chicken stroganoff, chocolate cheesecake and a strawberry torte (one of our team is a trained chef). We made simple hand-written invitations so that each mum was invited personally. We even invited some of our ‘old’ mums along – those whose children were now at school. Those who accepted chose their three courses in advance, and then we set to work!

‘The church lounge was set with tables and we decorated them with daffodils and tea lights; we really tried to make it look special and to make the mums feel welcome. One of the mums even came along and helped. It was great!

‘Two very lovely ladies from our church came along for the evening too and worked in the kitchen for us, serving the food and clearing up so that the Toddlers team could join the mums to eat and chat.

‘All our anxieties disappeared as the evening started and all the mums arrived! We had nine mums, three grandmas, two grandads and five of our team there. We had feared that the evening might have awkward silences or lulls in conversation but quite the opposite was true; we laughed and talked and had a brilliant evening. One of the mums even commented it was the most fun she’d had for years without having a drink!

‘Please don’t be fooled – there was some hard work involved but it was WELL worth it. We made real connections with people. And their comments afterwards blew us away; they were completely overwhelmed by the whole evening. And a lovely donation was sent to Cry in the Dark, thanks to the generosity of the mums.

‘We feel God really blessed our evening together and we are so grateful to Him for bringing these mums into our group. We prayed on several occasions that we would be able to show love, hospitality and friendship, and those prayers were wonderfully answered. Most of them have moved on now and we find ourselves almost back at stage one, building up relationships with our new mums – so time to start planning the menu for the next ‘Toddlers’ meal then…!’

Last Updated 06 December 2010