Turkey Take-Out

What do you get when you mix 560 turkeys with 100 HPC volunteers? Thanksgiving dinner delivered to over 400 families in less than 5 hours. How cool is that?

Saturday was our big Thanksgiving giveaway and God showed up! We had been working all week trying to gather info, print maps and pack grocery bags in anticipation of the grand event. I’ve got to tell you, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. With over 300 addresses that were expecting a delivery, I imagined us delivering turkeys into the wee hours of the morning. And believe me, you don’t want to be knocking on any doors in the wee hours in north Baton Rouge.

But, everything ran like clockwork. (By ‘clockwork’ I mean the kind of clock you buy at the Dollar Store, with no warranty, 10 minutes before they close on Christmas Eve.) The volunteers were early, the turkeys were late and it seemed like half of our people moved between last week and this. All in all; a near-perfect event.

I have to say, I am always so impressed by the people who attend Healing Place Church. From the pulpit we hear that we’re a healing place for a hurting world, but to see that walked out in the flesh just touches my heart. Cars were lined up at the Annex with people anxious to spend their Saturday delivering food to people in need. When we told them they had to wait because the turkeys were delayed, they got out of their cars and asked how they could help us until the turkeys arrived. When the addresses were wrong, they called to see who else they could bless. When the turkeys were gone, one family purchased another complete meal to give to a neighbor that didn’t get one. Another couple delivered the turkey, discovered the people were without food, and got together with their life group to buy groceries for the family in need. Who does that?! HPCer’s, that’s who.

I love that our church understands that we are blessed so that we can bless others. I love that ‘reach’, ‘serve’, ‘give’ and ‘build’ are not just words in our church; they are principles that we try to live by. I love that over 100 volunteers came out, not just to give somebody a meal, but to give people a living example of thankfulness.

Once we finished the drive-through portion of our day we headed downtown to the Baton Rouge Dream Center. With about twenty birds left to deliver, a team of volunteers loaded the truck with 30 cases of grape juice. We drove across North Acadian to a little trailer park on Hollywood. This isn’t one of the new FEMA parks; this is a collection of dilapidated mobile homes that look like they should have been condemned years ago.

As soon as we pulled into the park, people start streaming out to meet us. They recognized the HPC logo from prior outreaches and immediately connected it to giveaways. The need was overwhelming. We found Mr. John, an elderly gentleman with a hand-held voice box. He runs the park. John was thrilled to see us and made some quick decisions on who needed what. Thanks to his assistance our truck was empty in less than 20 minutes. We had the opportunity to visit with some of the residents and to pray for man who needed healing in his body. With thank you’s and waves all around, we slowly made our way out of the park.

Not everybody got a turkey that day, however everybody was invited to join us for Thanksgiving Dinner on Wednesday night at the Dream Center. Thanks to our faithful volunteers with Cooking For Christ, we plan to feed 200 people a full meal on Thanksgiving Eve. It will undoubtedly be a night to remember.

I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of what God is doing here in Baton Rouge. I thank God for my church, for my pastors and for everyone who works so hard to demonstrate the love of Christ. Sometimes a turkey is just a turkey, but in the right hands a turkey can hold the key that opens the door to someone’s heart.

Happy Thanksgiving. All glory to God!