Tuesday, November 15

Tonight was our 24th annual ConC Thanksgiving Banquet. Our first was in 1982 and consisted of a handful of students in the living room of our 900 square foot apartment. Tonight was basically a two hour feeding frenzy with well over 200 students taking part. We no longer try to do a program of any kind. Someone will say an opening prayer and then we have at it. Mostly, it is a great time for our kids and a great open door for new people. Students bring friends from their dorms, from their teams, from other countries for a good, home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner without a lot of "religious" stuff thrown at them. But relationships are begun and people get in the building and get to know who we are - that we aren't scary religious fanatics. Over the years, the Thanksgiving Banquet has been the first step for many, many students who became leaders in our ministry or later gave their lives to Christ. It is a lot of work and we will spend most of the day tomorrow cleaning, but it is also a highlight of the year.

Of course, none of it would be possible without the wonderful and generous and tireless work of the people of Oak Manor Christian Church here in Fayetteville. For the past 24 years, they have supplied and prepared all of the food for our banquet - the turkey and ham and potatoes and gravy and stuffing and corn and green beans and homemade bread and cakes and pies and more. It is quite an undertaking for a congregation of fifty people! But they love ConC and they love our students and they pull out the stops every year for us. Karen Hendrix organized it all, but everyone in the church pitches in to make it work. And thanks, too, to Andrew Lekwa and the folks at Butterball for donating enough turkey breasts to feed 250!

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