Thanksgiving Tables

Every year at this time, I see pictures of Norman Rockwell style families gathered around the table with a big turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, rolls, potatoes, and, of course, the green bean casserole.

My family didn’t do Thanksgiving at the family table. I grew up in the Harmony Baptist Church, later, at a new location, the Canfield Ave. Baptist Church, where I was married, and finally, the Twelve-Ryan Baptist Church.

We had the annual Thanksgiving Missionary Conference, held to further the instructions of Mark 16:15, “Go ye out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” 

Missionary families from around the world came to spend the week with us. They were welcomed into our homes. Families from our sister churches in the area joined us. Those who could, attended every business-hours meeting. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, that meant mostly adults, but on Thanksgiving Day, young and old gathered in the sanctuary for the final assembly. One of the guest missionaries was given the honor of bringing the message, and after that, we went to the hall for our feast.

It was, indeed, a feast. Members brought the food–turkeys and the rest, from home, and it was laid out on a twenty-foot-long series of folding tables. After the Grace was said, we dived in.

Most of us went home with full stomachs and carried our leftovers. We always made more food than needed. Baptists tend to do that.

On Friday, most of the missionary families left to return to other worlds—places like Peru, Brazil, Korea, and India, and we went back to our ordinary life.

So, even though I didn’t have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner around the home table, I had it at my church home with my church family, and those memories bolster me today.