Last quarter’s Sabbath School lessons about "the least of these" motivated the Sweet Home (Ore.) Church to host a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the church. Invitations were sent and hand-delivered to community service clients and church members for the dinner held on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019.
The church family was present to make our guests feel at home and welcome. Tyler, 6, wanted to help, so he went to each guest family and told them his name, invited the children to join him in the play area upstairs after they ate and gave each child a candy cane. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the fellowship while Jim Carpenter, from the Albany Church, played relaxing guitar music.
The Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a Thanksgiving vegetarian casserole, delicious salads, yummy green bean casseroles, rolls, pumpkin and apple pies, and freshly pressed homemade apple juice. At first, the thought of preparing a Thanksgiving meal for a 100 people seemed a bit intimidating and overwhelming, but by the end we were all so glad we did it.
This event involved the entire church in one way or the other, helping with cooking, serving or mingling. Both the guests and church members enjoyed themselves greatly. As our guests began to leave we kept hearing comments like “this was wonderful!” and "we have never been to anything like this.”
We plan to make this an annual event. We have so much for which to be thankful, and we give God the glory.
