mrshojo: TORQUAY LADIES LUNCHEON

Guests at our Ladies Luncheon at Trinity, April 13, 2013

On the last two Saturdays I have enjoyed two noon luncheons, the first at Torquay and the second at Lampman. Here are some highlights from the first one. I decided there were enough pictures to do two posts so watch for the Lampman Luncheon later.

The Torquay luncheon is put on by the ladies of Trinity Lutheran Church, with much appreciated help from the men who do the serving and much of the cleanup. We couldn't do it without you! We stick to the same menu each year - four salads, wings, buns and dessert. We started our ladies night outs when we had a good Chinese cafe in Torquay. They supplied the hot foods, we made the desserts and coffee. When that service was no longer available, the suggestion was made to switch to a salad bar and prepare the food ourselves. The wings were added and that's been our menu ever since. Last year we changed from evening to noon and that has gone over well. We have a program following our meal and serve the dessert between speaker and musical numbers. This luncheon gives us an opportunity to reach out to the women in our area with an event that brings us together and inspires us in our walks of faith.

It only seemed fitting to observe a minute of silence for members who had passed away since our last ladies event. Teresa Halvorson died on April 15, 2012 and Lilah Daae on Dec. 6, 2012. Here are pictures of them "in action" at Trinity.

Elaine and Teresa tying a quilt. Teresa also sewed countless quilt tops
and crocheted hundreds of baby sweaters for layettes.

Lilah with sweaters and other items for layettes.
She was a great worker and organizer and devoted her life
to serving her Lord in countless ways.

We'll never forget this horse and buggy entrance that Lilah came up with!
She loved to take part in skits and monologues, gifted in so many ways.

The night before our luncheon, Aunt Viola Halvorson passed away at the age of 95 at St. Joseph's Special Care Home in Estevan. She was a former member at Trinity, Torquay and had leadership roles at Trinity and in the former Regina Conference. She and Lilah were partners in many good skits, several of them written by Viola.

Vern and Viola at an ELW breakfast, Trinity, Estevan

This year our luncheon speaker was Chantel Kilback from Weyburn. She shared her experiences doing mission work in Kenya where God led her in different paths than she had expected - like teaching computer classes instead of working with young children. She accepted the changes as His will for her and was blessed by these new experiences, as she became a blessing to new friends and "family" in Kenya.

Chantel showing pictures from her time in Kenya

We are fortunate to have the musical Daae Family living in the Torquay/Bromhead area. The ladies from this family blessed us with several numbers that were an encouragement for us. Five year old Shaya had her little violin ready, but wasn't quite ready to play in front of so many people!

Amanda, Shannon, Lauren and Crystal
(with Cathy in the background)

Vickie had several humorous stories to share with us, changing hats to fit each story.

I had the job of emcee. I brought a pack of six Norwegian chocolate bars and presented to some special people. Here's a picture of our oldest guest, Dorothea at 94 years, and our youngest, Mychal at two months.

Our oldest and youngest guests

Adele with granddaughter Hannah, who poured our punch

Caroline and Vi, in charge of the butterfly quilt raffle
( painted by Dorthea, stitched by Caroline)

The kitchen crew, with advisors!

A birthday cake for a special server, Pastor Danny

Our guests came from Regina, Weyburn, Midale, Estevan, Bromhead, Oungre, Hirsch, Beaubier, Outram and Torquay area. Thank you for each one who blessed us with your presence. A special thank you to Vickie and Carolyn who did the planning and spent a lot of time making those plans work! Thanks for those of you who prepared food, to the men who served and helped with clean-up. I should have had a case of Norsk chocolate bars to show appreciation for all the "behind the scenes" help.

Our Ladies Luncheon gives our ladies a chance to use our talents in many ways. Any funds raised are used for mission work in our community and beyond. We give $500 a year to mission work in a foreign country, $200 to the July 1st Jamboree at Oungre Park, help supply Christmas meals for Souls Harbour in Regina, send quilts to Lutheran World Relief, to the hospital and nursing homes in Estevan and any familiy in the area who faces a disaster such as fire or floods. We also do the janitor work at Trinity and pay for any supplies needed.

We sell some of our quilts to help fund these projects and to pay for supplies such as quilt batting. We are thankful that we can continue to serve our Lord as part of Trinity Lutheran Church in Torquay. I should also thank the crew, (men and women), who worked diligently to put in new floor covering in the entry, hallway and stairway at Trinity, just in time for our Ladies Luncheon. We can even be thankful for the late spring that kept the men out of the fields and gave them time to work on the floor!

The new carpet tiles and flooring on the stairs, as well as a new paint job

Today should be our last day of "winter" if the forecast is right. Spring weather has been a long time coming to this area. In the past two months the temperature has not reached a "normal" temperature. Above zero has been rare. Right now, at 11:00 am, the temperature is - 2ºC with a windchill of -10º C. There was snow earlier this morning so some roads in the area are still rated as having "winter driving conditions". I see the highway to Estevan has been updated to "good driving conditions" so I'll be off to Estevan soon. Our accordion group is playing for the monthly birthday party at St. Joseph's Special Care Home at 3:30. I will be missing Aunt Viola's presence.

Watch for my next post about the Lampman Library Luncheon! (Special thanks to Cathy Daae for sharing your pictures from the Torquay luncheon.)