Thanksgiving for Disaster Survivors

Thanksgiving Prayer
ADRN Volunteers pray with fire survivor Arely Cruz

When most Texans were cooking on Thanksgiving eve, others wondered how they would feed their families. That’s especially true for disaster survivors as they face the immense challenge of overcoming a tragedy. But because of the generosity of the network church Our Savior Lutheran Austin and the Austin Disaster Relief Network, these survivors have one less challenge to manage. 

 

On the day before Thanksgiving, Our Savior Lutheran provided more than 30 families impacted by disaster with complete turkey dinners that included trimmings, sides, and desserts. They connected with these families in crisis and distributed the goodies through ADRN.

 

Christopher Drew, the youth director at Our Savior Lutheran, said the church’s pastor and congregation cooked the turkeys themselves and donated the sides to ADRN for the families.

 

“We do this because God asks us to serve others. Jesus told us in Matthew 25:40, ‘whatever we do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me,’” Drew said.

 

Areli Cruz, whose family lost everything in a mobile house fire earlier this year, received one of the Thanksgiving meals.

“We don’t have close family here. My husband, Jonas, has a brother in San Antonio, but here in Austin, we only have our church friends, but today, ADRN called us and wanted to bless our family with dinner,” she said. 

 

“That means a lot because we’ve gone through a hard time. We lost everything, but they pray with us whenever we work with ADRN. That’s a blessing for us,” Areli said.

 

While the meals will meet disaster survivors’ physical needs, they mean much more, according to Drew. 

 

“They show each person that God loves them,” he said. “He provides for them. He provides for us all. And what better thing is there to do than to take care of our brothers and sisters?”

He (God) provides for them. He provides for us all. And what better thing is there to do than to take care of our brothers and sisters?

Praying over Thanksgiving Donations
ADRN Staff and Volunteers from Our Savior Lutheran pray over the donated Thanksgiving meals
Meal Preparation
More than 30 complete Thanksgiving meals went to families recovering from disasters
Meals delievered
Each meal was hand-delivered to survivors' cars for them to enjoy with their families on Thanksgiving Day
Join us for our Annual Spring Gala.

Donate to ADRN

Donate

"*" indicates required fields

I Want to Give

$10 is the minimum online donation. All donations are tax deductible.
Frequency

Donations Disclaimer: Gifts to ADRN for a specific disaster response will be used as designated. If a specific disaster response becomes overfunded and identified needs have been addressed, the ADRN Board of Directors will redirect your gift to a similar response effort. All other gifts to ADRN are unrestricted and may be used for any purpose consistent with the mission and vision of ADRN.