Those who plant in tears will harvest SHOUTS OF JOY. They weep as they plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the HARVEST.



Psalm 126:5-6

Monday, November 26, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

This was our first year here in Iowa to spend Thanksgiving just the 8 of us.
I was a little nervous as to how the day would turn out and what we would do. i really wanted us to all go serve in a homeless shelter but all of the ones I called were not in need of volunteers. I was disappointed but knew we would find something to do that day. Two days before Thanksgiving a lady who I had called about a week earlier called me and told me that they could use us to help serve up at the church her in our town. I was so excited because we were going to go out and help be that hands and feet of Jesus. I went to the store and bought my Thanksgiving meal (which was going to be lasagna since we would be serving in the early part of the day).
Then our big day came, we got all the kids ready, gave them expectations of how to behave, told them this was not about us but about serving others, and helping them understand that we wanted the people we were serving to leave their happy and Thankful.
After all that was said and done we got in the van and headed to the church. When we walked in the area was beautiful, they had decorated it so nicely and we were ready to serve the hungry. We waited and waited and waited. We prayed for God to send the people and no one came. But let me tell you it was great teaching experience for our children because we explained to them that even though no one came God knew our hearts were pure and he was smiling down at us for our act of service. We explained to our children that even though we didn't feed a thousand hungry mouths in God's eyes we did.
In the end all of us volunteers sat and ate and fellowshiped together and it was a wonderful and eye opening Thanksgiving to me. My eyes were opened to see that I live in a wonderful and caring community and it was great to see us all loving and serving the same God.

1 comment:

Heather said...

Hi Sister,

I am finally getting around to reading your blogs and they are wonderful:) I am so thrilled that we were able to fellowship on Thanksgiving together. It is nice to get to know you and your family a little better everytime we meet. You are such a special, loving family. May God continue to lavish His blessings upon you.