If you happened to stop by the church week before last, you were probably greeted by a lot of green beans, rolls, marshmallows and mashed potatoes. No, the building wasn't subleased to Tom Thumb for the week; the food was perched and ready to find a family in South Dallas who would take it home. For the sixth consecutive year, 121 Community Church took part in the annual Thanksgiving outreach of Spoken For. As mentioned in last month's family-focused issue of 121 World News, the project offers a great opportunity for families to serve together and many people jumped on the opportunity this year. Families and individuals picked up empty laundry baskets at the church, and then returned them full of all the makings for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (minus the turkey and pie). Grocery shopping took on a whole new dimension for many that week. The 350+ overflowing baskets were picked up at the church and delivered to Operation Relief Center (ORC) in Dallas a week before Thanksgiving, along with baskets from other churches and individuals. On Saturday, November 17th, the turkeys and pies were purchased from a local Dallas grocery store and joined their waiting dinner counterparts at ORC.

The hard-working staff and volunteers at ORC spent weeks registering families in the area to receive the dinners. Interested families were screened by ORC staffers and assigned a time to come claim their Thanksgiving goodies. Meanwhile, volunteers from 121 and many other metroplex churches signed up on Spoken For's website to help distribute the baskets, turkeys and pies. So it was that hundreds of people from South Dallas and more than 200 people from “the burbs” converged on Operation Relief Center the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

The volunteers gathered up by the stairs Saturday morning in anticipation of the families who would soon be coming for holiday cheer in the form of food and smiles. The process was explained – work in pairs getting a basket, a turkey and a pie, then carry it for the family to their car. During his instructions, W. L. McCall of ORC emphasized the importance of sharing Christ with the families as you walked with them. The main goal is to give them more than a meal. He said you never know if you are there to plant seeds of the Gospel with them or if you are there to harvest seeds of the Gospel that have been planted by someone else. Mr. McCall then asked for volunteers to help with a few small projects in the area such as hauling trash, yard work and cleaning apartments.

At 10:30 on the dot, the gates were opened and the fun began. Rows and rows of food baskets dwindled down as families were escorted to their cars by new friends. Weeds met their end. Trash made its way to the dumpster. And apartments were scrubbed. At the end of the day, Christ had been shared in words and actions, just as Paul described in Colossians 3:17.

If you were unable to take part in the Thanksgiving basket project this year, be sure to jump in early next year. It is exciting to see how the Lord has grown a tradition He started 16 years ago with 25 baskets of food into an annual outreach involving hundreds of needy families and hundreds of willing volunteers.