A lagging economy wasn’t enough to keep Holiness Tabernacle Church Of God In Christ from providing holiday cheer for those in need this Thanksgiving season.
The church provided more than 100 turkeys, November 21, on a first come, first serve basis to the Woodbridge Community.
“This [turkey give away] means a lot,” said Elaine Duffie of Woodbridge. “A lot of families don’t have any money. To have the church make it possible for people to feed their families is a blessing from God.”
Throngs of people filled the church parking lot as they waited for the give away to begin. “We gave over 70 turkeys away in 20 minutes,” said church founder and pastor, Eddie B Pruitte, Jr.
Pastor Pruitte, who has been pasturing in the local community for more than 11 years, says this give away was a desire that God had placed on his heart for some time.
“You can’t meet the spiritual needs of the community, if you don’t at first meet their physical needs,” Pastor Pruitte said. “Our vision is to be a community-based church that will meet the educational, social and financial needs of this community.”
And that’s exactly what Michael May, Occoquan District Supervisor, wants to do as well May was on hand to meet and pass out turkeys to those less fortunate.
“I was very impressed by the fact that the church was willing to reach out and help those in need,” May said. “Its up to the local government to partner with institutions like Holiness Tabernacle to fill in the gaps were needs are not being met.”
The church also provided food baskets to families from neighboring schools.
As lay-offs and foreclosures continue to occur, Holiness Tabernacle seeks to be the silver lining in an otherwise darkened economy.
I don’t know that people realize just how great a blessing this giveaway was to people in our community. For a church that has only been around for a little over 10 years, HTC is making great strides to meet needs. I am so proud to be a member!
Watch out for HTC…this is only the beginning!
God bless