THANKSGIVING, 2008

Thanksgiving this year was different than I have ever experienced. Our church feeds dinner to 1,000 people each year. It takes place at a Mexican Restaurant, owened by a Korean family, here in Riverdale, Maryland.

I arrived early, and was given the task of working with the kitchen staff. My job was to make all of the iced tea and coffee for the guests, and to serve the guests at the tables their beverage of choice.

The day went by very quickly, and I enjoyed meeting so many of these wonderful people. I took one lady's name and phone number and we plan to get together soon.

The whole town board gets involved too, and it was nice to finally be able to put a face with a name, as I have heard nice things about most of them many times.

Besides giving the guests a wonderful meal prepared by the staff, the people have the option of going outside and picking out any warm clothing they choose. Hundreds of warm coats, hats, gloves, and scarves were donated by our church as well as townspeople. The food was donated by several large corporations. We have a man who donates hundreds of loaves of bread, muffins, and bagels to our church every two weeks, and it gets distributed to the needy by our church groups. On Thanksgiving Day, the man appeared and brought with him enough bread for 2,000 people!

Inside the restaurant, live Christian music was being offered by musicians and singers. It was so interesting to see the Hispanic and English speaking people singing together for the glory of Jesus Christ!! Praise the Lord in all things!!

At the end, after all had been cleaned up, I wandered in to my new home, and got served a delicious dinner by my sweet daughter, son in law, and baby grandson. We even had pilgrim hats to wear for the occasion.

We all have so much to be thankful for, and we prayed with thanks as a family for the first time. We were missing Terry that day, but we know he was watchng from above.
A good time was had by all. Thank you, Jesus!