Turkey Call

Turkeyfest turned out to be fantastic.  Our small group had 5 baskets to deliver but we only took 4 names.  We figured, somehow, we would be directed to the fifth family.  We asked the first 4 families if they were aware of a family that really needed help.  We were led to just such a family.

Four boys, ages 2,3,5,6 and Mom and Dad.  All living in an apartment with NO, absolutely no furniture.  All the contents of the apartment had to be destroyed because of bedbugs, that or pay $3800 that they did not have, for a “bedbug treatment”.

They were great people and they realized we were there to help.  They were joyous over the turkey dinner and all the fixings, but we somehow realized a turkey dinner would not cut it,.

At our next small group meeting, we decided to try to “adopt” the family for Christmas. We didn’t really know what that meant, yet.  We made contact with them and they accepted our offer.  We asked for the children’s names, and ages and what they might want for Christmas.  We also asked what Mom and Dad might want for Christmas.

The answers surprised us.  The boys could each use one pair of pants and perhaps one “learning” toy.  Mom and Dad said they had no needs.  No needs. We were expecting more toy requests or “fun” things, but Mom knew exactly what they needed.  Mothers somehow always do.

We dug a little deeper to find something that Mom could use. An iron and a blender said the father.

We divided up the list and each member of our group obtained the requests, and we all seemingly added a little bit more.  We called to set up a time to meet with the family and Mom would be available on Tuesday night.  She wanted to know how many of us were coming so she could serve us some coffee.

During this time period we have, through the generosity of a number of people, started to get some furniture for the family.  The husband of one of our members delivers them bread each week.  I think we found a calling here.

Tonight is the evening we are going to their apartment, to take our small gifts to help to change their world. While the gifts will be helpful to the family , the real gift is that, through the Turkeyfest, we found this family  and I think we will discover that we are the real recipients.

I didn’t know a Turkey could be so powerful!

Thanks for the Turkeyfest and everything else you and The Vineyard do for us.

Regards,

Wayne

One Response to “Turkey Call”

1. barbara on January 17th, 2009 7:18 am

   I would like to use the super bowl as an outreach opportunity. Does anyone have some ideas as to what our church could do? barbara