Annual Thanksgiving dinner brings the community together

JACKSON, Tenn. — One local church opens its doors to the community for an early Thanksgiving dinner.

First Baptist Church, Bemis had their annual Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday evening, starting with worship, prayer and an emphasis on community and giving thanks.

One of the participants, eleven year old, Alyvia Kenzie Baxter shared one of her favorite parts of the event, “The other is seeing everybody come out and wanting to have a good time and they wanted to come to our church. And be here with us, when they could have gone anywhere else or not even come. They decided to come to our church and be with us and worship all that god has done for us.”

Pastor John R Gaters shares his passion for their community, “We love South Jackson and we love the Bemis community. This neighborhood friendly they’re very down to earth, very friendly, very kind. I can walk around the neighborhood and people are waving and hi. You know, stop and hey can you pray for me. That kind of thing. It’s very old fashioned in that sense. But, very, we love that because it seems like so much of the world is lost that.”

With everyone getting ready for Thanksgiving and time with others, Baxter shares what Thanksgiving means to her, “Be thankful because there are tons of people who are not thankful and not grateful and there is a lot of people who are having trouble this thanksgiving season and we need to be thankful for what we have. And that’s what I think thanksgiving is about.”

FBC, Bemis will host numerous events, including a student musical, and candlelight worship, in December celebrating the Christmas season.