Thanksgiving!

 

Sooo... I wrote this last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, but I forgot to post it until now! OOPs! So just read it as if it is then! :)

This year I get to celebrate Thanksgiving in a different way.  I am finding that I have a different view of what Thanksgiving really is.  I always just looked at it as a day that the entire family gets together and eats lots and lots of food.  Yesterday, it hit me, when it was Thanksgiving, but I was not celebrating in that way.  Why was I not celebrating that way you ask?  Well, I live in England now.  And it is not exactly a holiday here.  (However, I do live with some Americans and awesome non-Americans who are more than happy to celebrate with us, so we will be celebrating today!)   Anyway, I was realizing that I have so so much to be thankful for.  Every morning we start off our day going around in a “circle of thanksgiving” thanking the Lord for anything and everything that we have to be thankful for.  And yesterday, Thanksgiving, it just really hit me how much I truly have to be thankful for. 

You want to hear something funny?!  Even though yesterday, I was not able to celebrate a traditional American style Thanksgiving, I feel that I celebrated Thanksgiving in the way that it war meant to be celebrated.  We went through our normal Thursday schedule of morning Psalms, (reading the psalms together), morning prayer, breakfast, quiet time, cleaning work duties, lunch, then News (where we watch the world news and then pray about the events that we see in the news) worship, then free time, dinner, then the Cambridge House of Prayer.  Obviously that is an abridged version of the schedule, but you get the picture.  But as I was saying, I feel like I truly actually appreciated and was thankful for what it is that I do have.  I have an amazing family at home who loves and cares for me, amazing friends back home and all over the United States who care for me, and an amazing family right here in Cambridge. 

As we were having our Prayer and Worship time, I was just really struck by how blessed I am.  I am surrounded by such a loving group of people who all have the same desire to know and worship the Lord.  They have such a heart and passion for people.  It is so encouraging.  When I really start to think about it, we spend many hours a week in prayer praying for people right in Cambridge and all around the world.  At first I felt like we were not really doing anything, but God honors prayers.  Not saying that He will answer every single prayer in the exact way we believe they should be answered, but He does hear them.  It makes a difference!  When we pray, words are not empty, they have substance.  They matter!  So all the time we spend in prayer, praying for God’s people right here and around the world, does something major.  That is why prayer is so important. 

Also, God wants to hear from us!  He wants to talk to us and wants us to talk to Him.  He loves us.  I mean He did create us after all!  It makes Him smile when we take time to spend with Him each and everyday whether that is in corporate prayer or time alone just with you and Him.  Time alone with you and Him can look like anything.  It can just be walking down the street, doing dishes, driving down the street, anything at all!  God is right there with you at all times.  It does not mean you necessarily have to talk to Him out loud.  Just like with a close friend when you are together in the car, you sometimes sit in silence, but just the presence of the friend being there is enough.  God loves any time you spend with Him and honors it!

Okay back from my random prayer tangent.  Ooops!  So my point about mentioning prayer is just realizing how amazing the people I live with are!  I have never met people more in love with God and with His people in my life.  My family here in Cambridge don’t even have to know the people they are praying for, yet they will feel for them as if they were their own friends and family.  That is so inspiring to me!  If that is how they feel about strangers, imagine the love they show to each other here!  Awesome right!? I am just so blessed to be able to have this be my life!  My life is training to be a missionary.  That is my real life!  And I am able to do that…for real!  I mean yes, it is EXTREMELY different than what I am used to.  For those who know me, I did have to make a lot of changes when it comes to habits such as well the obvious, shopping.  But it is crazy, the transition was a lot easier than I thought.  So, I am so thankful for all that God has provided for me!  The road may definitely get bumpy at times, but He is still the one who designed the road, so I know I am in good hands and it will all work out for my good!  I am also so thankful for all of you who have supported me either through encouraging words, prayers, or through financial support!  I would not be where I am if it were not for all of you, so a huge thank you goes out to all of you!

I will go back and fill you all in on what went on the last few weeks, like going to GERMANY in a bit!  We are celebrating Thanksgiving today, in addition to our regular schedule, so it is going to be crazy busy!  EXCITING stuff!  Some general prayer requests for our team would probably be, well it is cold season and since we live in community and we also learned how to share in preschool, we tend to share sicknesses, so just prayers for overall health would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you EVERYONE!