Centro de Alabanza Emmanuel hosts 6th annual Thanksgiving outreach event

On Thursday, Nov. 23, the Centro de Alabanza Emmanuel held its 6th annual Thanksgiving Outreach in the parking lot in front of DD’s Discount Clothing on 2nd Street in San Bernardino. The event started with a bilingual tent style worship service.

Several hundred people from the community came to enjoy the festivities, take advantage of the free food, entertainment, and nobody went home empty handed.

Pastor Kenyo Macias and Pastor Javier Gonzales organized the outreach where they personally handed out boxes of food to community members. Several booths provided games, crafts, face painting, free giveaways including new bicycles, and music from teen rappers. A mobile kitchen was handing out free prepared hotdogs by the bag.

Several bicycle technicians worked on broken bicycles that residents and homeless brought for repair. John Roller from Calvary Chapel Wildwood said that this was his third year working the event. Roller said that many vendors and bike shops donated tires and tubes, seats, pedals, and chains for the event.

Dr. Bryan Sowell physician at San Bernardino Medical Group, volunteered his time to oversee several nurses provide basic wellness checks and personally talked to each of the patients during the event. One lady walked up to the medical booth with bleeding wounds that she suffered after being attacked by a dog just hours before. In another instance, a lady named Teresa talked to Dr. Sowell in Spanish. Dr. Sowell did not hesitate to pray with Teresa and give her some comforting words.

At the dental booth, Dr. Lucky Lucero from Aloha Dental in San Bernardino was performing free dental examinations for the children and adults. Dr. Lucky is a San Bernardino native and has been serving the community for over 12 years.