Church lunch date and charity

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This afternoon, I went out to lunch with one of my friends I've made a church, 1.5 years ago. She's also the first person I call for my ride during the winter on my own snow chain. If she's helping to set up and prep church lunch (like this coming Sunday, she's doing a chili meal), I'll call a couple of my other friends for a ride. And if I do errands on a Sunday after church with my brother, I'll arrange it for a one-way ride. Anyway, when I've informed my church last fall about Marshall passing away via email to my priest, it would be mentioned in the prayer chain and also on the church program, she mentioned she would treat me out to lunch to cheer me up the first Sunday after he died. Since it didn't happen last fall, we did go out to lunch at a local diner for lunch this afternoon and talked and ate good food. She's been at this restaurant many times with her husband after church. I'm blessed to have her as a friend in my life. She also sits next to me in the same pew as me, when I don't have to sit up front alone. If my mother was alive, I think she would've liked her too. Last winter, she invited me to do a fundraising event at a local parishioner's house to have a chili dinner and made chocolate bark to raise money for the woman's retreat this fall. We've sold a lot of various chocolate bark between Thanksgiving and Christmas with leftover to be sold next month during Valentine's Day week. Another part of our outing was doing something for one of our church charities called S.A.R.A., which stands for Sharing America's Resources Abroad. Every year we donate clothing to send to the Ukraine. Our mission was to buy clothes at a local discount outlet store for little girls and to teen girls to wear all year-long. We've picked out a bunch of clothing from jeans, jackets, sweaters, and tops in various colors and sizes. Some of our picks we put away as a maybe and returned them to the racks. But with the color-coded discount in green and gold, and her Buckeye discount card, it cost around $30. We plan to go back in the spring with there's a new color-coded discount system and buy for boys next time around, or whatever they need. Maybe ice cream may be included as well. Another new thing my church is doing for S.AR.A., is starting a knitting club in 1.5 weeks to knit or crochet sweaters, scarves, hats, etc. And then it would be donated later this spring. Do you have a great church friend you're close to? And what charities do your church donate or fundraise? Do you knit or crochet?