Teatime with the Women of Worth!

My friend Susie has started a unique ministry. Her dear husband, Jerry, who was our minister to senior adults, passed away last year, and Susie felt led to start a group for widows that is strictly social in nature. While groups centered around grief recovery and counseling are plentiful, she discovered a lot of widows simply wanted someone to hang out with, or go to the movies with, so she started this group known as "Women of Worth." The name is one I love because it focuses on where these women are in life now. So when Susie asked if I would organize a tea for the WOW group, I said sure, and the tea was set for this past Monday, March 6. As you can see, the members of the Glory Class (Susie's and my Sunday School class) provided no small amount of food! Our tea sandwiches were pimiento cheese, chicken salad on mini croissants, cucumber, and egg-olive spread. We also had scones, chocolate cake, lemon bars, blueberry bites, and my own Brown Sugar Shortbread, which I naturally failed to get a picture of.

The tea was held at the absolutely gorgeous home of Judi, a member of my church I actually hadn't met yet but who apparently likes to host friends like the WOW group. Like a lot of churches these days, First Baptist has two services on Sunday, and since Alex and I go to early church, I'm forever meeting members I didn't know I go to church with. I used to think I could never enjoy a large church, but I've learned that when we bond with our small groups, like Sunday School classes and Bible study groups, we still get to experience the small-church feel. I was so grateful to be able to call on my fellow class members to help with this tea! Gerry, above at left, was there as a member of the WOW group. She is also in my Bible study class, and when she arrived early, she offered to help assemble cucumber sandwiches. (You'll swear I'm making this up, but she is 82! You'd never know it, would you?) At right you'll see myself and fellow SS class member Georgia, a worker bee if ever there was one, and Judi, our hostess for the day. I wish I'd had more time to explore that lovely home of hers, but we were busy, busy, busy!

Here's our wonderful Susie sharing a brief devotional at the start of the tea.

Judi set places for all 30 ladies and practically had a tearoom in her kitchen and living room! Many of the ladies wore hats, which I always enjoy seeing. You'll notice that the ladies are all using rose-themed tea and toast sets, of which I learned that I have 32. Whew! (I had some non-rose floral ones in reserve but was glad we could stick with just the ones with roses.)

I prepared three different kinds of tea, and many women wanted to sample them all. I served the new Twinings Earl Grey Lavender, Celestial Seasonings' Candy Cane Lane Green Tea, and Tin Roof Teas' Tiramisu Mascarpone Rooibos, all three of which had requests for seconds. Helpfully, Georgia brought along her tea chest for sharing, and I'm pretty sure I saw some women sampling teas from it as well.

Here are Susie, Georgia, and some of the other ladies enjoying tea in the living room of the "tearoom."

My friend Patty, at left, looked so cute in her ladylike ensemble!

Judi had lots of tea touches on display throughout her home, and I wanted to share the first one I noticed when I arrived, this cute teapot birdfeeder. I knew it was a sign that a fun day was ahead, and it absolutely was. I'm pleased I was able to be a part of such a useful new ministry, and I'm so glad I have church friends I can count on to bake, cook, and serve when called upon to help!