With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, food drives are in full swing. While community meal giveaways are widespread, Grace Fellowship Church, a Grace Brethren congregation in Waterloo, Iowa (Rob Borkowitz, pastor), has taken it a step further — they partner with another local church to provide a community dinner.
They also send a bag of non-perishable groceries home with each family who attends for a meal. It’s all part of their way to serve for Thanksgiving.
For the last 15 years, Grace Fellowship has joined with First Wesleyan Church to provide the community dinner. This year it will be held at Lowell School from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 23. (Lowell School is the local elementary that Grace Fellowship has partnered with to help as needed.) They expect nearly 600 people for turkey and all the trimmings.
People from both churches sign up to bring turkeys, pies, cookies, or brownies. Grace Fellowship purchases the mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and dressing. Those are prepared at the church and then transported to the school. Volunteers from both congregations also sign up to be host/hostesses, serve, and clean up.
While the goal is to serve the community for God’s glory, the church faces a challenge. Since the event is held at a school, they are unable to include anything spiritual in the event.
“Pray that we will be able to be a good testimony by our willing service to the people who attend, that they will see Jesus in us even without words,” said Connie Mullins, the office manager at Grace Fellowship.
The church is also asking for prayer that they will have enough food and enough help, and that the whole event will run smoothly and be honoring and glorifying to God. – by Julia Marsh
This story first appeared in the GraceConnect eNews. To subscribe to the weekly newsletter, click on the orange box on the right side of this page.
How are you reaching out to those who are less fortunate this Thanksgiving season? Share your response in the comments below.