Seven years ago, my mom had this idea. She wanted to start a Community Thanksgiving Meal to provide meals on Thanksgiving Day to those who couldn’t afford to cook one, or didn’t have anyone to share Thanksgiving with, or were dealing with illness and couldn’t get out. That first year we served 500 meals, delivering to people’s homes and coming back with hearts full of gratitude. From there, our little meal became the thing that we did every Thanksgiving, each year growing our number of volunteers and meals served and turkeys cooked. This year, I felt especially grateful. I felt myself taking moments out of the hustle and bustle to look at the people around me and appreciate their humble spirit and selfless service. Here’s a little timeline of how it went.
Tuesday, 4:00 P.M.
This year we hosted and prepared our meals at the church I grew up going to, the church where I got saved and made so many special memories with my family. My mom and I were there on Tuesday night, unpacking supplies and making cranberry salad. It smelled like cherry Jell-O mix and cardboard boxes, and it was quiet because it was just us. As we unloaded box after box onto the world’s longest rolling pool table, I took a moment to appreciate the woman who started everything. I am so grateful to have been raised by a woman that has such a heart for others. Someone who taught me that the best thing you can do is give of yourself and love on other people. Someone who is fearlessly selfless, even in the face of personal sacrifice.
Wednesday, 7:00 A.M.
My mom and I were back at the church, grabbing a few supplies off of our refrigerated truck before going to meet a group of volunteers to make dressing (or stuffing, or whatever you want to call it). I had been on that truck countless times already, and let me tell you it was cold. I finished handing the boxes off to Mom and climbed out of the truck and I swear it felt like an 80- degree summer day. I’m not sure if it was because the truck was so cold or because the day was that warm, but I stopped for a second to just enjoy the breeze. We were surrounded in a little golden bubble of the sun finally coming up over the trees and bouncing off the small creek that runs by the church. In that moment, I felt God’s presence with us, almost like He was smiling at us and giving us that beautiful warmth as an encouragement. He is everywhere around us each and every year when we do this meal. When we don’t know how we are going to have enough money or enough volunteers or don’t know how we are going to make things work out, He does it for us. He always, always provides, often in the most unexpected ways. He has sent people our way that have been generous beyond their means, or generous in spite of their means. He has sent people who donate hundreds of hours of their time, or come in with just the thing we need at just the right time. He has blessed us with people that share our desire to serve others through this meal, and He has never failed to make a way for us even when it seems impossible. I have so many God stories from our years of doing this meal, and this year I felt Him especially close to us, watching over and guiding us to make sure we got it right.
Wednesday, 8:00 A.M.
When we showed up with the supplies for the dressing, we were greeted by 10 or 12 volunteers that work with us every year. People that love our little meal as much as we do, and people that have become part of our Thanksgiving family. Let me make a note here: I am SO grateful for these people, the ones that love us and join us in loving others and selflessly donate their time each and every year because they are so passionate about what this meal stands for. My favorite thing about this meal is getting to share it with the other people that volunteer with us, and hearing the stories they come back with of how it has changed their hearts and lives.
Our incredible volunteers made cornbread and mixed dressing for most of the day. We were a little short-staffed but (what did I just say about God providing?) we got an influx of volunteers at just the right time. We were joined by a traveling little league baseball team that stood and crumbled cornbread for our dressing for hours on end. I wasn’t sure what to expect because several of them were quite young, but they worked tirelessly and without complaint until we had the dressing mixed. Their coach came by before they left and told us they hoped to come back the next year and help out again, and I felt my heart so warmed that they would want to join us again.
With the dressing mixed and ready to be put in the oven, we left and went back to the church where we found even more volunteers setting up tables and slicing desserts and planning out day-of roles and responsibilities. We opened can after can of green beans to put them in slow cookers so that they would be ready for the next day. This time everything smelled like green bean juice, but I was just as thankful for the people so willing to donate of themselves and work so hard to make our meal a success.
Thanksgiving Day, 4:00 A.M.
It’s finally the big day, and we’re exhausted as we roll out of bed, but we head out to Byrdstown to start cooking the dressing. Our car is loaded down with desserts that need to be taken to the church, and there are voicemails on our delivery hotline from people who want to be added to the list to receive a meal, but I can feel the adrenaline and excitement. When we get there to start cooking, I am amazed to see 5 people waiting there to greet us, waking up before dawn because they wanted to be part of making our meal a success. People in the county next to ours that love what we do and have helped us to grow and be able to have a home base in two counties, not just one. We sat and mapped out deliveries as we waited for the dressing to cook, and then we loaded it up and took it with us to start serving meals at the church.
Thanksgiving Day, 8:00 A.M.
We arrive at the church and y’all it is unreal the number of volunteers we already have there, working on cooking green beans and mashed potatoes and shredding the turkeys that were cooked by two incredibly generous men in our community. Side note: Both of them came and picked up the turkeys they were able to cook, cooked them in their beautiful, amazing-taste-creating smokers, and then brought the turkeys back to our door so that we didn’t have to worry about going anywhere to get them or taking time away from anything else. How cool is that?
Anyway, back to the volunteers. We had people ranging from age 5 to age 90, all walks and stations in life, and all there because they have a servant’s spirit. Just before it got crazy, I looked around at that beautiful group of people and what they were accomplishing. We served over three thousand meals that day, all because so many were willing to come and box meals, or wash dishes, or cut desserts, or help in the kitchen.
We also had volunteers that made deliveries, going to addresses all over the county, knocking on doors, and using church vans and personal vehicles (and even a school bus!) to make sure our meals reached their intended destinations. So many of our delivery teams were families that come and make volunteering with us part of their Thanksgiving every year. People that come back with stories that touched their hearts and impacted their lives. So many of our delivery teams this year went on two and three successive runs, delivering meals for hours on end until we finally had all of the deliveries done. I would be on the phone with one of our teams, and they would ask if there was more to do. And I would tell them to come back and get more meals and make more deliveries. I almost tear up writing about this part, because of the incredible task of making all of those deliveries, and the incredible generosity of just asking “What more can I do? Where else can I go make deliveries?” It was a reminder to me of what it means to truly serve, by always asking to do more, love more, serve more.
Saturday, 10:00 A.M.
It’s been a few days, full of rest and reflection, and I am still thinking of the many ways I have been blessed this year. Every year, I learn so much from our volunteers and their kind hearts. I hear stories from the people we serve that remind me why we do this. I get to spend my Thanksgiving with my entire community. I get to be surrounded by my family and people that love me. I get to go through the rest of the year with incredible friends. I get to go to a school that I love and pursue a career I am passionate about. I never have to wonder or worry where my next meal is going to come from. I get to wake up, each and every day, more incredibly blessed than I could ever imagine. Lord, I pray I never take things for granted, and always remember every blessing, both big and small.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16
Look around, and think about what you have to be thankful for—not just now, when it is a season of thankfulness and appreciating blessings, but every other day too.
all my love, ki
