Ideally, all volunteers are at New Life just before 6:45, and we have a group gathering in the kitchen and then break out into the various activities.  Volunteers enter on the west side of the building, off the parking lot.  (Guests enter from the east side of the building, where the vans drop them off).  As you arrive, there will be a name badge to fill out so we can get to know each other better.  Here are areas in which you can be of great help:

• Pouring coffee for our guests, as they arrive between 6:30 and 8:30 to also have doughnuts, cereal and a cold beverage.
• Helping in the kitchen with cracking eggs, buttering toast, keeping Krispy Kreme's moving out for our early guests, etc.
• Helping wash dishes
• Preparing lunches-to-go for every breakfast guest
• Helping wash dishes
• Helping in the clothing room, where guests enter 10-at-a-time (each receives a number as they enter)
• Helping wash dishes
• At any moment that it seems like there is nothing for you to to, that's your chance to sit down with any of our guests and just say "hi."  Chances are real good they will make getting acquainted very easy.  If they aren't ready, visit someone else.  This activity is just as important as eggs and juice and coffee and clothing.  Getting to know "our neighbors."
• Putting juice on each table at 8:00
• Helping dish up the main meal, which is served promptly at 8:30
• Helping carry plates full of food to the tables
• Helping clean tables; getting cups, knives, forks and spoons to the kitchen.
• Helping wash dishes (every cup, knife, fork and spoon gets rinsed, run through the 2-minute high-pressure dishwasher, hand dried and put away.
• Helping with rinsing, washing and drying dishes.
• WOW....suddenly it's not yet 9:15 and you wouldn't think anything ever took place there.  Our early guests who wish to help with clean-up get a marked business card from Pastor Jennifer.  After tables are cleaned, chairs on tables, floors swept and mopped, tables put back, etc., each one is given an all-day COTA bus pass as a gesture of thanks.

Oh, did I mention staying to help with dishes?  (We often experience folks helping in the beginning, but not at the end; I'm just trying to help "spread the fun" to all.

The most important thing for all to think about as you plan to participate is that this is a "MINISTRY OF HOSPITALITY."  (Smiles are a good way to convey that message).  It is also not just a "New Life" ministry.  Wonderful folks like you from all over Central Ohio have made and continue to make this their ministry, too, or it just couldn't continue.