Africans among donors to local church’s Thanksgiving drive

Potential Church, formerly Flamingo Road Church, recently held its third annual Thanksgiving season food drive to benefit the Broward Outreach Centers, a division of the Miami Rescue Mission, to provide meals to the hungry and homeless during the Thanksgiving season.

In total, the centers will  serve 240,000 meals during the fall season.

During each service over last weekend, Potential’s pastors urged members of the congregation go out and buy items for donation directly after the service and take them back to donate. The results were often lines of cars with people giving at the same time.

For the third straight year, the numbers were very good: 1,176 turkeys, 347 pies and 104 hams that will go to hungry families and individuals whom the Miami Rescue Mission/Broward Outreach Centers serve.

Because of an Internet-based campus that Potential Church created, 139 turkeys were donated by individuals outside of the United States,  including Africa.

“There are so many hurting folks in our local community and we are praying that this year we can have a huge impact against poverty through our local outreach centers,” said Troy Gramling, lead pastor of the church.

Besides campuses in Cooper City, Hallandale and Doral that served as donation centers, Potential Church also has branches in Pensacola and Lima, Peru, along with its Internet campus.

Broward Outreach Center Director James Whitworth welcomed the donations.

“It is wonderful to be partnering with Potential Church for the third year in a row,” he said. “They do such a great job getting their congregation involved. Their donations will help those in our community who really need it.”

The Miami Rescue Mission began serving the homeless in Miami-Dade County in 1922 and started reaching out to the homeless in Broward County in 1992.  In 1997, the organization  opened the Broward Outreach Center in Hollywood, followed in 2002 by the Broward Outreach Center in Pompano Beach.