{"id":1333,"date":"2009-12-28T19:02:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T19:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2010-12-22T11:42:12","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T16:42:12","slug":"7470","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/12\/28\/7470\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Day Dinner Serves 350 Individuals"},"content":{"rendered":"

MASON CITY, IA (December 28, 2009) \u2013 First Covenant Church<\/a> served nearly 350 people Christmas Day as part of a community-wide event to make sure that no one needed to spend the holiday alone or miss a meal due to a lack of money.
\n
\nThe meal is free and anyone is welcome to come. \u201cSome come out of need and some come to avoid eating alone,\u201d says Pastor Tammy Swanson-Draheim.<\/p>\n

\"Dinner\"\u201cEveryone who comes gets treated with grace-filled service that includes being greeted at the door, ushered to their seats, waited on, and friendly conversation for those who enjoy interaction,\u201d says Swanson-Draheim. Centerpieces decorated the tables covered with linens and guests were treated to live piano music.<\/p>\n

Churches take turns hosting the Community Christmas Dinner – volunteers from other congregations helped the many members of First Covenant who donated their time.<\/p>\n

Nearly 80 volunteers helped put on this year\u2019s dinner. \u201cWe had so many people volunteer that we had to put some volunteers on waiting lists,\u201d says Swanson-Draheim. \u201cI think it is a wonderful witness when individual churches can lay aside differences and enjoy working together to meet community needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pastor adds, \u201cThe presence of such a warm spirit of generosity makes it difficult to distinguish who is having a more enjoyable time – the servers or the served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers spent several days preparing the food. The menu consisted of ham, green beans, scalloped potatoes, Jello salad, dinner rolls and a choice of apple or pumpkin pie.<\/p>\n

Some volunteers provided transportation, driving people who had no vehicles or were afraid to drive on the slushy roads.<\/p>\n

This is the second time the church has hosted since 2006 because the congregation loves the opportunity, Swason-Draheim says. \u201cThe experience has been such a meaningful way to show God’s love to residents from all walks of life that two years ago First Covenant began an annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skill and the desire to serve combine to make the dinners a wonderful outreach. \u201cFirst Covenant is blessed with a variety of individuals who can produce meals for large events with professionalism and grace,\u201d Swanson-Draheim says. \u201cThe people love to use their gifts to generously serve the community, so we are never short of volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swanson-Draheim adds, \u201cMy dream for First Covenant is that should we cease to exist, the people of this community would miss us terribly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MASON CITY, IA (December 28, 2009) \u2013 First Covenant Church served nearly 350 people Christmas Day as part of a community-wide event to make sure that no one needed to spend the holiday alone or miss a meal due to a lack of money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas Day Dinner Serves 350 Individuals - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/12\/28\/7470\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Day Dinner Serves 350 Individuals - 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