My brother-in-law is an archaeologist, and he knows what the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag guests really ate at the first Thanksgiving. In addition to the turkey, there would have been salmon and trout, clams and quahogs. Picture steaming pots of venison stew and pea soup, alongside of mashed turnip, succotash, beets and onions. Sorry, no apple pie at that first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims served Indian pudding made of cornmeal sweetened with molasses. (It’s delicious!)
Will you be celebrating Thanksgiving this week? Why not invite friends and guests to join you in thanking God for the past year? Celebrate by using the foods that are native right where you are. It’s not about the turkey!
At this time of year when I count my
blessings, I will surely give thanks for the missionaries and their diverse ministries. In September, International
Ministries had a goal of getting 100% of the missionaries to post a new journal
before Oct. 31. I am so pleased to say that on the last day, at the last hour, we got the last journal posted. 100%!!
While I’m thankful we achieved that goal, I’m even more thankful for other things. Like the many missionaries and their hard working MPTs that were able to achieve their financial goals a year ahead of schedule! I was very privileged to be one of the Lydia Barnabas team; a group of staff asked to be "encouragers" to the missionaries and their MPTs. I got to come alongside the Armagosts in Japan, the Baits in Costa Rica, the Chettis in Lebanon and Deb Mulneix in India. I reveled with them in their successes and brainstormed with them and their MPTs when things didn’t work as planned.
I’m also thankful and very appreciative of the emails I received from many of the missionaries in the last 2 months, as we worked to get to that 100% goal. They were grateful for my nudging them along, encouraging them to keep trying to post their journals to their profile pages. It paid off, as many missionaries and their MPTs were attempting to post journals themselves for the very first time!
Churches here are planning special Thanksgiving services. My own church had a Thanksgiving Potluck Supper this past Wednesday night. We were celebrating the renovation of our church kitchen – a project we’ve dreamt about for years. And we celebrated that two of our members, Bucky and Carole Sydnor, are returning to their ministry in Nepal this week. .
I've asked the missionaries to take a moment and post a new journal telling everyone what they're thankful for in their ministry, their country of service, and in their life. I know one missionary who has experienced the joys of cleaning a chicken for the first time and probably has a whole new appreciation for the meat case at grocery stores here!
Other missionaries are thankful for surgery that made them feel better, or that they got to visit some US churches this fall and make new connections. Several missionaries are thankful for the simple convenience of things like running water and having electricity 24 hours a day. A few have celebrated as one of their kids has gone off to college, while another appreciates having an iron to "dry" out clothes that stay damp in a humid climate. And several are thankful that they get to teach people who are passionate about learning!
Simple things. Big things. Ridiculous and odd things. All of them are answers to prayer. There are so many things that each of us could write about. So take a moment and share with others those things for which you are thankful. In doing so, everyone else will have the opportunity to be blessed and can thank God as well.
Karen Mason
Director of Special Events