Hot dog club a full plate of blessings: ‘I want you to just love them’

The Hot Dog Club has a standing date every Friday night at David and Shirley Duncan’s home.

But full disclosure here. Never trick your taste buds to show up expecting a wiener with mustard, relish, onions, chili, slaw and all the other fixings.

“We rarely have hot dogs,’’ David said.

It’s like Waffle House without the waffles and Domino’s without pepperoni and mushrooms,.

Don’t insist on truth in advertising. There is no bait and switch. The hot dog club simply takes poetic license with its menu.

It has served hot dogs to the neighborhood children less than a dozen times since it began in the spring of 2018.

“If we renamed it anything it would be the chicken wing club because they crave chicken wings,’’ David said, laughing. “I’m not kidding … at least 25 kids a week will ask me, ‘Mr. Duncan, are we having chicken wings on Friday night?’ ’’

One of Macon’s most amazing ministries began one afternoon with a knock at the door. David got up from his chair and walked across his living room floor on a pair of prosthetic legs.

It was a young boy from the neighborhood. He introduced himself and told David he lived a couple of doors down the street.

“He simply asked me for a drink of water. I crushed the ice and put it in a disposable cup. I gave it to him, and he went on his way,’’ David said.

“The next day he came back, and the third day he came back. But the fourth day he came back and brought a bunch of kids with him. They were sitting on the bench by the front door.’’

David and Shirley are longtime residents of Lake Wildwood. At the time, they were struggling with difficult life circumstances. Shirley’s job with the Hephzibah Children’s Home was coming to an end. She had been a resident there herself as a child and had worked at Hephzibah for more than 30 years.

David was dealing with his latest round of health issues. His vision was failing. He had surgery on both eyes and glaucoma had robbed him of his sight in his right eye. His left eye was like staring out of a dark tunnel.

He also was a double amputee, having lost both legs to diabetes. He had been at death’s door until he received a pancreas and a kidney in a double organ transplant.

When the young man showed up with his friends, Shirley told David to give them something out of the grandchildren’s candy jar and a soft drink out of the refrigerator.

A few weeks later, David invited the growing number of neighborhood children over for a hot dog supper on a Friday night. They served cold soft drinks and had cupcakes for dessert.

David, who has devoted more than 50 years of his life to the ministry, then sat them down for a short devotional and Bible study.

Over time, David got to know their names, where they lived and their family situations. They began to trust him. They shared their hopes and fears. They went to him with prayer requests.

“I have my own dream. I think every preacher does,’’ David said. “I was going to evangelize the world with the hot dog club. But that wasn’t the way God chose to do it at all. When we began, I would ask him for direction, and he said: ‘I want you to just love them.’ ’’

As word began to grow, the Duncans began receiving an outpouring of support from the Middle Georgia community and beyond. Soon, dedicated volunteers began helping every week.

Children now stop by after school on weekdays for a daily snack. After their hot meal on Fridays, they are sent home with donated food and snacks to get them through the weekend.

Soon, it became about much more than feeding the more than 100 regulars every week. The children’s needs are met in other ways, from clothes to school supplies and personal items.

The donations have come from as far away as Colorado. One church donated the storage shed – affectionately known as “The Barn” — to house all the supplies.

Financial and material donations have been sent from people he does not know, never heard of and may never meet. But he can never thank them enough.

On May 20, the Hot Dog Club will celebrate its fourth anniversary. And it’s no longer just a gathering of neighborhood kids.

The line starts forming early at the front door. David calls it a “wide assortment of people who are hurting, lonely and broken.’’ Many are adults who are hungry or down on their luck.

He said the impact of COVID changed both the way they operate — and the dynamics of the ministry.

“In a way, COVID was a blessing because it upped our numbers,’’ he said. “Children were hungry. They were isolated. … We are still rearranging because of that. But God has made a way where there was no way.’’

Although hot dogs are rarely on the menu, David and Shirley have a full plate of blessings each week.

After all, the Easter ham and the hot dogs come from the same pig.

“I try to bless them,’’ David said. “But they always bless me back with the joy of giving to someone who can never repay you.’’

Ed Grisamore teaches journalism at Stratford Academy in Macon. His column appears on Sunday in The Telegraph.