TORRINGTON – When the day started Thursday, Cody Dyer, pastor of Lifeway Church, didn’t know if he’d be by himself or not.
Shortly, though, volunteers started arriving and, by 2 p.m., the church hall was filling up with hungry guests for the church’s first-ever Community Thanksgiving.
“It’s just an amazing thing to see the people who want to come out and volunteer on this holiday, maybe step away from the traditions they’ve had to come out and be a part of this,” Dyer said shortly after service officially started.
“That is an amazing thing to see,” he said. “I wasn’t worried about being the only one, honestly. I just didn’t know how many” would volunteer to help out.
He shouldn’t have been too surprised at the number of people who showed up to volunteer. During a meeting following a regular Sunday service at the church in early November, some 50 people stayed around to learn more about the dinner plans.
The dinner was the logical next step in a series of gatherings – all focused around food – that began several months ago, said Eric Anderson, one of the Men of Lifeway group that spearheaded the meal plans.
“We felt like the Lord had kind of led us to open to the community for Thanksgiving,” Anderson said. “We were encouraged by everybody who was opening their doors. We just decided to make this an outreach to the public.”
With enough food prepared Thursday for an estimated 500 meals, Lifeway Church ended up serving more than 241 meals. That includes 46 meals delivered Thursday morning to people who couldn’t make it to the church or – like officers at the Torrington Police Department – were working during the holiday.
That number was around the average of what people had been estimating, Dyer said Monday. Some were guessing more, some less. But Dyer and the rest of the volunteers were pleased with the response, given it was the first time they’d hosted the community meal.
One person who came for Thanksgiving dinner was Ashley Shinn of LaGrange. New to the area, Shinn and Doug Carson were invited to the dinner by a member of the church. They thought it would be a good way to meet people in the area, Shinn said.
“I think it’s very nice,” she said. “It’s really thoughtful for them to put out food for everyone.”
And that was the result Anderson and Dyer had hoped for.
“My first hope was they’d see the goodness of people,” Anderson said. “Especially people of faith who are willing to give of their time to the community. A lot of the church family are bringing their extended families from out of town down here, to introduce them to their church family.”
And Dyer said he was happy so many people in his church stepped forward to give of their most valuable commodity – their time.
“I want people to see the light of Christ through the servanthood of this,” he said. “So many people get preached at. I think people are tired of being preached at.
“But to see the love of God through serving and people being willing to do something,” Dyer said. “I want them to see the love through people doing this. A lot of people have a heart to serve, but they don’t know how.”
