The Alvarez Jiujitsu team collected food, so that people can have a great meal on Thanksgiving Day.

Students from Oakridge School in Arlington moving turkeys into position, having a great time, and getting us ready for Thanksgiving Day.

If it is true that Thanksgiving can truly reveal the heart of a person, perhaps it is also true that it can reveal the heart of a community.  From our vantage point, we serve in one of the most beautiful communities in the country.  It’s one thing to be thankful for what we have.  It’s quite another thing to use what we have to help someone else.  Yet, that is what this community does month after month, year after year, and especially in the Thanksgiving season.

If predictions hold, given the need in our own community, then Mission Arlington^® will provide Thanksgiving food to more than 25,000 people on Thanksgiving Day.  Yet, Mission Arlington^® can only provide what the community first gives.  We simply pass along the generosity to people who need it the most.  We have watched in amazement as car after car has dropped by our place with arm loads of turkeys, and a trunk full of Thanksgiving food.  It isn’t just that you buy it and bring it here, but it is also that you do it with such energy, and joy.  The smiles and hugs we experience here day to day are truly blessings that last beyond this season.  We are grateful for you.

On Thanksgiving morning, starting at 8:00 a.m., volunteers will arrive, ready to serve. They will load turkeys, boxes of Thanksgiving food, and/or hot meals into their cars to make personal deliveries to people in need.  The encouragement that will happen across our community on Thanksgiving Day will be difficult to measure, but it will be real, nevertheless.   People will be encouraged that someone cared enough to give their time to provide for their needs.  People who serve will make a bigger difference in people’s lives than any can know.  What a true blessing it will be.

Please join us the day before Thanksgiving to help us get ready (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.), or on Thanksgiving morning, beginning at 8:00 a.m.  We’ll give you the name and addresses of a family or two, load food into your vehicle, and then you can make the deliveries of food to people’s homes.  There is something about serving that strengthens us, encourages and blesses us.  The Mission Arlington family is so grateful that we get to do this with you!

Truly, this is a “season for Thanksgiving.”