I Love Thanksgiving

I am writing this blog a day after Thanksgiving. I love this holiday and what it stands for. It's so much more than a day off with family eating turkey and watching an NFL football game. Thanksgiving is a time to look intently into God's face and say "thank you".

It seems like yesterday that we loaded our Rider Truck and moved our family 1,200 miles from New Mexico to Cedar Falls, Iowa. We felt we were coming to the Cedar Valley because God had spoken to us. We were, as far as we knew, to start a church from the ground up. It's been 22 years since that trip to Iowa and so much has happened.

But in summary, just as God sustained and blessed the pilgrims hundreds of years ago, He sustained and blessed us as a family. As I sat at our dining room table abundantly filled with food, watching our three natural born children lovingly relate to their spouses, all of whom they met at the church we planted, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of gratitude. And then to observe these three families raising their children, our grandchildren, to love and revere God, I almost broke into tears. And to have our adopted son sitting at out table, laughing and talking to his brother and sisters and playing with his nephews and nieces brought me nothing but sheer joy.

The church we had come to plant has been planted. And the church we planted has sent out leaders to help establish 6 other churches. We have seen hundreds of people come to Christ in these past two decades and the work is not yet over. And yet is this was the end of His provision, God truly does exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask, think or imagine.

To Him I say, "Thank you!"