FULL . . .OR . . .EMPTY

I was thinking today about how much food MOST of us will consume over the next few days.  In our Tuesday night small group, we played Halloween trivia back in October and this week, we played Thanksgiving Trivia (as our ice breakers).  I can't remember the actual numbers, but the amount of chocolate consumed in October and the amount of turkey consumed in November would blow your mind. (ok - had to look it up -- in 2011, 736 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the US (all year) -- we eat on an average of 46 MILLION turkeys on Thanksgiving day ALONE!!)  (Americans purchase 600 million pounds of candy per year for Halloween . . .I would believe that after our 800 trick or treaters!!)  My mother-in-law buys a 24 pound turkey every year for Thanksgiving!!  I have a picture of our turkey from last year - it was huge!  I would like to show you but for some reason, I cannot get the picture from my phone to my computer. (wonder if German Chocolate Cake - homemade - counts in that chocolate consumed at Halloween???)

We are a people who love to eat . . .and we (talking about our family here) have enough money to purchase the foods we want and the transportation to drive ourselves to the store or the farmer's market.  We also have multiple grocery/market/combo stores within easy driving distance to our home.  I'm certainly not bragging about this.  As a matter of fact, I'm humbled by this.  During November, I've been writing thank you's to God every morning.  It is amazing how our attitudes can and will change after saying thank you for multiple things each day.  We can even get fresh vegetables year round!

So where am I going with this?  Are we not serving turkey this year?  Yes, we are - probably another 24 pounder + a 12 pounder that Mark and I purchased for our neighbor to fry for us.  Fried turkey? Yes, thank you!!

A picture just arrived in my inbox . . .yes, it is!  Mr. Turkey, himself! . . .No . . .not Mr. Turkey but a platter of pie slices . . .lots of pies.  Mark's momma usually makes 7 different pies.  Mark wants a slice of six of those pies (he doesn't like pecan - yes, he is a southern boy.  I don't know what happened to him)

He's here . . .it took over 20 minutes for a picture to move from my phone (which is sitting 3 inches from my computer) to get to my computer.  That is just weird.  Here is Mr. 24 pounder himself in all his glory . . ..drum roll, please.  Golden brown on the outside . . .moist and juicy inside!

This is where I'm going -- there are a lot of folks who do without good food during much of the year. Hopefully, they will go to one of the local shelters on Thanksgiving day and have a meal just as lovely as the one we will be eating at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday night.  But what about those other days?

We are having a Community Wide Thanksgiving service at our church - Trinity UMC - 1400 Oxmoor Road Homewood, AL 35209 - on Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m.  We will be collecting non-perishable food items for Greater Birmingham Ministries.  First -- a quick commercial: we would love for you to come and join us.  Rev. Brian Erickson will be preaching and it will be GREAT.  This man is a man of God and he can PREACH.  There will be great music.  Our Sanctuary choir and the choir from Dawson Baptist will combine.  You can read about it here.   But DID YOU HEAR ME? We will be collecting non-perishable food items for Greater Birmingham Ministries.  This morning, I called GBM and asked if she could give a list of much needed items to me.

They need:
Cans or bags of dried beans (pinto, kidney, navy, black-eyed peas, etc.)
Cans of corn
Cans of sweet potatoes
Cans of English peas
Cans of tomatoes of any tomato product - sauce, paste, etc.
Plastic (remember that - plastic!!) jars of applesauce
Cans of good fruit - my note here -- packed in juice -- buy what you would buy for your kids - peaches, pears -- buy the good stuff!!
Canned meat - not just tuna, but chicken, salmon, ham
Canned soups - chili, good filling soups, ravioli, spaghetti, beef stew - something to fill up an empty belly
They need boxes of powdered milk or cans of evaporated milk
Boxes of pasta, rice,
Plastic jars of peanut butter and plastic jars of jelly
I read recently that you should always try to purchase plastic jars for food banks or cans or boxes (as much as possible) because they hold up better and food items don't get crushed.
They could use cereal - once again, buy good cereal - cold cereals, grits, oatmeal.
Staples such as flour, sugar, corn meal.

We have much for which we are thankful.  Oh goodness - we have MUCH for which we are thankful.  Be generous.  Do something nice for someone who doesn't have as much as you.

Now thank we all our God . . .with hearts and hands and voices!