Thanksgiving Baskets

I love the church that HHBL and I attend. Too many reasons to list here but one of the things that I love the most about CCC is their amazing heart. Their heart for the communities in which our different campuses sit. The heart of the church for those who are hurting, both overseas and right in our own back yard. For Justice and for Mercy. Ministries aren’t just for those in Africa or India, for rescuing girls from the sex trade in Indonesia (although we are involved in all of these ministries). Ministries are also for the people right in our own neighborhoods.

 

You may be asking yourself why I have a Sterlite 18 Gallon tub (minus lid) sitting on my relatively clean kitchen counter.

You were asking yourself that right?

I picked it up at church yesterday, signed my name on the dotted line and stuck it in the back of the car.

It is our “Thanksgiving Basket”. Not a basket for us really, although I think will get as much joy out of the thing as will the people for whom it is intended. See this is how it works.

You sign up and take a tub along with a list of things that go into said tub.

The list itself is fairly basic. It is the things that should be included in the basket. All sorts of items that cover a Thanksgiving dinner. But we have discretion to add more things if we want.  Candy. Toiletries. All sorts of things if we want. And we usually want.

I knew that the “basket” would be arriving soon so I have been squirreling things away to go into it. There are still more things to be purchased but I am well on the way. The thing is already fairly heavy.

Then on Monday November 19th, in the morning to be exact, I will take the tub along with a 15 pound frozen turkey, over to church and drop it off. And in the afternoon those baskets will be delivered to the families in my community who really need them. Last year, when I went to drop our basket off there was a HUGE line of cars all doing the same thing. Crazy!

If you think there aren’t families in your community that won’t be able to put a Thanksgiving dinner on the table I would bet you any money that you are wrong. Hunger doesn’t come with a big fat sign. There are people in every community that won’t have a Thanksgiving dinner because they can’t afford it.

The year that CCC started doing our Thanksgiving Basket program the church delivered 40 “baskets”.

Last year we delivered…..600 baskets.

This year we are aiming for 700.

I have every confidence that we make that number. Last year they ran out of tubs before they ran out of people to fill the tubs. And if you think about the fact that the average number of people around a Thanksgiving table is 10….then that means that there are 7000 people that can be impacted by little plastic tubs in a rainbow of colors.

Like I said….amazing.