The Washington First Assembly of God church is hosting their fifth community Christmas dinner next week, which might see their largest attendance yet.

The dinner was initially hosted by the Washington Church of God, and four years ago Pastor Dave Watson says the church approached them about handing over the reins, “We started out just going exactly like it used to be and we served about, our first year, 150 meals which was great but what we thought was “Hey, we could serve a lot more people, and so how can we make it better? How can we get not only church partnerships but how can we get local community partnerships?’ And so we started working very diligently over the next few years and we grew from 150 meals the first year to over 250 the next and last year we were over 350 meals that we had even through the COVID that we turned it into a drive-through event.”

The church anticipates 450-500 attendees this year, and Watson says they’re excited to host an in-person dinner again, with carryout and delivery options also offered. Doors will open for the event at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, December 25th at 1602 East Washington Street with dinner served from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Watson asks those who wish to receive a free meal to contact the church in advance so they can have an estimate of how many people they will serve. For contact information to reserve a meal, volunteer, or donate towards the dinner, call the phone number above or email wfaevent@gmail.com, and tune into KCII next week to hear more from Watson during a two-part Halcyon House Washington Page.