'Servants to our community'

First Baptist Church in Tucumcari began offering free Thanksgiving dinners 32 years ago, and volunteer AJ Williams has been of part of that effort each year.

Williams, 71, has become the supervisor of the annual endeavor in the church's fellowship hall that typically feeds 200 people during the holiday.

Though she endures her share of ailments, Williams said she's never missed helping with the Thanksgiving dinner at the church. First Baptist continued with the tradition even during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns by offering meal deliveries or drive-up service in the alley next to the hall.

Last Thursday was the first time First Baptist had offered a sit-down Thanksgiving meal since 2019. About two dozen volunteers cooked nine large turkeys and prepared six pans of dressing, six pans of green beans, five pans of corn, baked 340 rolls and prepared 300 desserts (including 180 donated by Carlson Coffee Co.).

In all, they served 226 meals, including 92 boxed up to go and 98 more delivered to shut-ins. That total was within historic norms for the event.

Amanda Kenyon, wife of Rusty Kenyon who became First Baptist's pastor in May, helped with the meal for the first time.

"It's blowing my mind," she said in the fellowship hall's kitchen. "It's a huge undertaking. It's a privilege to do this."

Williams credited Reba Benavidez for coming up with the idea during a meeting of a church singles group in the early 1990s.

"I thought, 'All these people don't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. Maybe we should have dinner together. We should really do something, because they have nowhere to go, have no family,'" Benavidez recalled during a telephone interview last week.

Benavidez also noted some couples find it difficult to cook a whole turkey.

"It'll be more fun if we do it as a community, share dinner together," she recalled.

Williams admits she initially dismissed Benavidez's idea.

"We all looked a Reba when she brought it up at one of our meetings, 'Have you lost your mind?'" Williams recalled.

"We left the meeting, and then I remembered I have a degree in home economics. God kinda nudged my shoulder, 'You're equipped; do this.'"

In the first year, the church served 80 free Thanksgiving dinners. That encouraged Williams and other First Baptist volunteers to keep going.

"After we did it the first year, we realized the community needed something like this," she said. "Plus the people that come back become family. It was like seeing family come every year.

"What's been sad is we've lost members of the community who always came here. We miss them. But every year, we get new people, and they return."

Even during the COVID lockdown years, the numbers fed didn't decline much - to about 180, Williams said.

Williams said she arrives at the fellowship hall about 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day to prepare the turkey roasters and place stuffing in the ovens. She'll stay there until after 1 p.m.

"It's tradition," she said. "It's the people that keep me going. And we are to be servants to our community as Christians."

Williams said she began using a walker about two years ago, but she has no plans to quit.

"As long as my knees will let me, as long as my back will let me," she said. "I have arthritic knees and a bad back and an arthritic elbow now. But as long as the Lord lets me move, I guess I'll keep doing this.

"I'm fearing that maybe I'll quit, it won't happen," she added.

Kenyon wouldn't entertain the idea of letting the church's Thanksgiving tradition die.

"This is what we want to continue doing," she said. "This is a huge outreach, and it serves a huge need."