Encompass Blog
Thanksgiving 2017
In November we had our second
annual Thanksgiving Dinner hosted at
Christ the Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church at
1550 Meridian Avenue, San José.
CGS members cooked, decorated, set
up and cleaned up; several other congregations
of the
El Camino Real Conference
of the Sierra Pacific Synod
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
contributed food and helpers as well.
Last year very few homeless folks attended the
dinner because they had no safe place to store
their carts and possessions. So this year,
Encompass Ministry arranged for their
possessions to be stored under lock and key at
Martha’s Kitchen.
Encompass provided shuttle
service from Martha’s to CGS and after the meal
back to Martha’s. This year nearly 100 people
ate together; more than double last year’s count.
Warm connections with visitors from last year
were renewed, and new connections were made.
We look forward to more events like this as our
growing understanding of those who are
economically vulnerable stirs up our empathy and
moves us towards thoughtful action.
The point of the dinner was not just
serving hungry people, but also
building relationships between
servers and guests by sitting at the
same tables and sharing the meal
together.
