The last breakfast?
<p>Sarah Murray and her husband Mike have been operating their Sunday breakfast and church services through their non-denominational church ‘One,’ for the past four years.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - What started as a way to meet the neighbors over Sunday breakfast has grown into thousands and thousands of scrambled eggs.
Literally.
Pastor Mike and Sarah Murray, the married couple behind the non-denominational church 'One,' help dish up about 20 dozen eggs every Sunday since they started their weekly breakfast for homeless and low income families four years ago.
That's not even counting the hundreds of slices of French toast, regular toast, and pancakes that accompany the scramble. But 20 dozen eggs, times 52 Sundays a year, times four years equals just about 50,000 eggs.
"You never realize how selfish you were, until you start serving other people," Sarah said, about the breakfast and church service that has taken off in the last four years.
But to serve the next 50,000 eggs, One is going to need a new home.
The popular breakfast is followed by a church service every Sunday, but the weekly meetings have to relocate from the building on the corner of 14th and Sherman Avenue by the end of the month. The property owner is putting the building on the market, and One's former roommate, Specialized Needs Recreation, has since moved to Government Way.
"We're just looking for what we can afford," said Mike, married to Sarah for 28 years this August.
It would be ideal to stay in the East Sherman neighborhood, as the 140 people who attend the free breakfast and service are used to the location. Other homeless providers, such as Fresh Start, are in the area and they share clientele. It would be nice to share a place with another agency, as the Christian-faith ministry only uses its space on Sundays and Wednesday evenings.
And a kitchen would be nice, too.
"It just started to grow," said Mike, who remembers being impressed by serving 20 people when the breakfast first started, and has served closer to 200 recently. "It was like, 'Wow.'"
The church relies on volunteer help, donations and small titheings
Without a roommate, One expects to pay more than the $300 rent it had been paying. Its former building partner, SNR, moved to 3700 N. Government Way, Suite I and J. The nonprofit that helps kids and adults with development disabilities is looking for donations to furnish its new digs. It needs chairs, tables and an equipped kitchen.
But regardless what happens next, Sunday at 9 a.m. will be the last breakfast at the current site for One.
"I felt like we were supposed to be here," said Mike. The couple, with four children, moved to Coeur d'Alene from the Washington, D.C., area.
"It's exciting to get to do it," he said about the traditional morning meal. "But it's sad there's a big need."
Info: One: Sarah Murray, 660-4078. SNR: Angie Goucher, 755-6781.