Thanksgiving 2009

As they have for the past twenty-five years, volunteers from Westside Church of the Nazarene served three big holiday meals on Saturday, November 21, 2009. And even though 2009 was a hard year, we were thankful at Thanksgiving and so were the neighbors with whom we celebrated.

Shepherd founder Dr. J.K. Warrick (now one of six world leaders of the Church of the Nazarene) was on hand because of our 25th Anniversary celebration, and personally led each of the services. In all, about five hundred of our neighbors came to our three services (two for English speakers, and one for Spanish speakers) and then enjoyed one of the three Thanksgiving meals. Seventy-five volunteers were involved in the events of the day, and they even stayed busy between meals by stuffing letters.

Occasionally, a supporter will ask why we don't serve Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day. One of our goals is to help stabilize the families with whom we work. And stable families have their own holiday traditions. So instead of Shepherd taking the credit for their holiday meal, we would rather enable them to have their own holiday in their own home. So, on Sunday, November 22, another 375 volunteers, this time from Indian Creek Christian Church, came to help make that possible. The volunteers delivered 1,260 holiday food baskets, and each basket held enough ingredients for a big holiday meal. Indian Creek members had also previously purchased all the ingredients and assembled those baskets themselves.

On a relatively warm Sunday before Thanksgiving, cars filled the parking lot as volunteers came to pick up baskets and maps to deliver to neighbors in our area. And all were delivered in plenty of time for our neighbors to have their own holiday celebration.

Thank you. Thank you to all of you who spent their day cleaning, cooking, setting-up, tearing-down, serving, lifting, coordinating, driving, and delivering--all so that our neighbors could have something special on a special day. We appreciate all of our volunteers and we trust that your reward will be great in heaven.

Click here to see the rest of our Thanksgiving pictures.