For the past few years The Kings Kids Christian Outreach has been celebrating Thanksgiving inside the church building with a cooked meal while simultaneously handing out turkeys. It's been a great blessing but this year it was heavy on my heart that I needed to get back on the streets where we started this outreach. I had a renewed desire to find and meet people where they are. On November 1st I began knocking on doors in the community I grew up in. Many of the houses you could tell have some struggles going on. My only question to the person who a answered the door was, "Could we bless you with a free Thanksgiving turkey this year"?
The list of receiptants quickly added up to over 200 homes. A local business owner committed to donate 250 turkeys. We were able to do our first "Turkey Trot" visiting hundreds of homes in the Mastic Beach, Mastic, and Shirley community. Many of the kids were really excited to see us when we got there. Some were even waiting by the window because their Mom had told them we were delivering this year. A few local and single mom's did express that a turkey just wasn't in the budget this year.
We had people from various different churches help us deliver. It ended up being 10 cars running up and down the blocks of Mastic Beach delivering turkeys from 10am until 8pm. Jesus said "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and I truly try to live by those words. Especially at Thanks-Giving.
PJ Balzer is the leader of The King's Kids Christian Outreach
