A Crockpot Thanksgiving

n many ways, my Thanksgiving was very different this year. Recently, God had been leading my heart to look for more ways to serve others. My son is always talking about the importance of investing in the lives of others and he is an excellent example of living the life of a servant. Well, I broke out of the little box of tradition that my family has always observed for Thanksgiving and I'm so glad that God provided us with the opportunity to do so.

My home town has an inner city mission called Target Dayton. It's an awesome outreach to the homeless and others who are "down and out". They serve a Thanksgiving meal to about 300 people and my family volunteered to help serve this year. By my family, I mean my hubby and I, my 2 adult children and my 80 year old parents. In order to do this we had to reschedule our regular meal time and rethink our own Thanksgiving meal. Usually, I spend most of Wednesday and Thursday morning preparing a zillion dishes for an abundant meal. It's a lot of work, but that is part of the fun for me. This year, however, I knew that I would never be able to do all that cooking and serve at Target Dayton too. The solution? Crockpots. I cooked everything from green bean casserole, corn pudding, and dressing to appetizers in crockpots and started them early Thursday morning when I put the Turkey in the oven. (actually it was a turducken - I'll tell y'all about that some time...) Then we headed to downtown Dayton to be blessed by people who were so thankful to not only have a wonderful meal but were thankful to have people who actually smiled at them and gave them hugs and shook their hands. It was overwhelming. After the clean up, we came home, took the lids off the crock pots, sliced the turkey, said grace and had one of the most wonderful Thanksgiving meals we've ever had.

I have a few reflections on this years holiday. First of all, I never felt so blessed in my life. Not only for the good things God gives, but for the human connection He provided for us that day. We served people that would have never crossed our paths in any other situation. I felt very close to God. Secondly, I expected to be exhausted. I have a bit of a medical history slows me down sometimes and especially on the holidays when there is so much to do. But not this time! I'm still running on lots of extra energy. Thank you, Lord. Lastly, I've learned we will never be too old to be obedient to God. My elderly parents ( fine Christian folk themselves) have not stopped talking about that day. They were quite nervous about what to expect when they got to the mission. But God used their natural talents of encouragement and converstation (My Dad, for one, has never met a stranger and Mom's smile melts ice) to minister to hurting people. It was an amazing thing to observe. It was an amazing day. We serve an amazing God.