[ the c-b ]

I was sitting in the parking lot of Best Buy today, facing the back side of the restaurant where I served this past summer -- sitting there, in John's truck -- listening the first-programmed station on his radio, 94.5 FM (the station played most often in the kitchen of the Cracker Barrel too; classic rock hits, mostly from the 80's).

After a moment or two, I noticed Martin stationed by the fenced-in trash areas near the employee parking spaces behind the restaurant. Martin was one of the dishwashers hired toward the end of the summer -- a middle-aged man whose heart was in the job and who was beginning to love that place in August. I'm sure he's been named Employee of the Month by now.

Trash cans, chocked full of industrial-strength clear bags laden with extra food scraps, rolled toward him, speeding from thirty or forty feet away with a perfect arc (this had been done before, to be sure).

Then there was Jake, an associate manager who never called me anything but "Jessica" and whose really cute kids would sometimes visit him at work alongside his wife; Jake, the pitcher of sorts of these half-dozen trash cans flying toward Martin, who would complete the task and return to the dishroom to run hundreds of forks, knives and spoons through the machine for servers to roll.

I hadn't been back or seen anyone from there since August, so I sort of just sat in the truck and watched for awhile, praying for those people and having this strong feeling that God had more to show me -- more to teach me -- in that type of work: serving.

Anyway, I thought I'd post my "Tip Your Server" series on this blog. I wrote a nonfiction series at the end of this semester in a print journalism class I took, and would love for anyone to take a look at it -- and for comments, too.

Chase after Him.

Jessie

(All names have been changed for privacy.)