(By Rebekah Rudolph)
This last Saturday, September 27, was the annual Open House Day hosted by the Swiss Pantry in Belvidere, TN. We once again used it as an opportunity to do some fund-raising for Haiti.
First, of course, there was the yard sale, with items donated primarily from Watson’s Rental. It was a large set-up again this year with a wide variety of stuff. Miriam Rudolph and Sara Kelly took care of seeing to it all day from 7:00am to 3:00pm.
Right next to the yard sale was the apple butter cook-off. For several years now we have cooked apple butter over a fire in a large copper kettle that has been in the Rudolph family for generations. It is about an eight hour process just to cook it down, with constant stirring, but the finished product is so worth it! Next to the kettle is our stand where we sell previously cooked and jarred apple butter and also pure honey from Michael’s bee hives that are here at home.
This year, also, the Chris Beiler family, from the Believer’s Chapel in Tullahoma, did the annual BBQ stand, the entire proceeds of which went into completing the second story of the house in Haiti, so Michael and Breanna will have a place to live when they are married. At the BBQ stand you can get an excellent lunch of either chicken or BBQ’D pulled pork and baked beans, cole slaw, dinner rolls, and your choice of soft drink, water, or sweet tea, or you can buy chicken and pork by the pound and take it home and share it (if it lasts that long). The stand was serving from 10:00am to 3:00pm and was donations-only for the food, which was a step of faith, but the Lord blessed it and enough money was raised to complete the house to livability!
A huge thank-you to the Beilers and all the other volunteers who worked so hard to bring it all together! We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but it was good. So come and join us next year!
-Rebekah Rudolph