Feeding The Body and Soul

Dear Friend,

Just the word “Thanksgiving” conjures up great images in my mind: waking up to the smell of turkey roasting in the oven; gathering around the crowded kitchen with the Master Chef, “Mom;” snapping green beans; coating layers of brown sugar and butter on the yams; preparing the stuffing amidst the organized chaos in the kitchen...then, after the meal was devoured...sitting around the   television and watching football before taking it outside for a game of our own.

Wait a minute!  That wasn’t what life was like in the Jordan home on Thanksgiving!  Yes, our crazy, beautiful “Thanksgiving Days” consisted of  fantastic, warm-hearted Feasts, but they were not prepared in our home’s kitchen.  They were prepared in the Mission’s kitchen downtown on Skid Row!  It was there that we roasted hundreds of turkey legs, snapped green beans, coated brown sugar on yams, and mashed the potatoes to feed thousands of guests who gathered on the streets of Skid Row for these Celebrations! 

For decades, the Jordan family has commemorated Thanksgiving Day by reaching out to those who have no home, no kitchen, and no family to gather around the kitchen table with to celebrate the holiday.  “Home” for them instead is the cold, dark, and cruel streets of Skid Row.  It’s a place where they sit on filthy sidewalks, lay in cardboard boxes, or reside in make-shift tents to escape the harsh reality of the streets.  Skid Row is no place to call home!

But on this Thanksgiving Day, we will “set the table” and invite all those living on the streets to feast with us as our guests and extended family.  We will sing of God’s goodness, preach the good news of the gospel, and encourage them with the hope of Jesus’ love and redemption.   And when their stomachs are full of the traditional holiday fixings we prepare with love, we will send them off with food bags to take “home.”  

Will you stand with us to help make this happen?

Together, we can make this year’s Thanksgiving Feast a memorable one for all our guests as we’ve done for the past 75 years!  I am asking you to be as      generous as possible with your giving so that homeless and impoverished men, women, and children can be blessed this holiday.  

Let’s make a difference together!

Serving Jesus Together,

Joe Jordan - President/Senior Pastor
Willie Jordan - Chairman of the Board