Dear Church family, 

I was thinking about our country’s very first Thanksgiving. Imagine the challenges they had to endure. They left everyone they knew and every thing that was familiar. The Mayflower carried hundreds of people across the Atlantic on a 66-day journey full of sickness and storms. That winter, nearly half of the folks died from disease and lack of shelter. 

Yet, when the harvest season arrived, they set aside three full days to give thanks. Despite the hardships, there was still much to be grateful for. They were alive. They were welcomed as strangers into a new land. The natives taught them how to grow their own crops. They had food to eat and friends to share it with. And, most important, they had religious freedom, which is the very reason they came. 

They were grateful and centuries later we as Americans are doing the same thing every November. 

Let’s be honest, sometimes being grateful is just plain hard. We find ourselves overwhelmed with trials, troubles and tribulation. And sometimes it goes against our nature to give thanks anyway. But that’s exactly what the Lord asks us to do. 

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Love you ALL, 

Pastor “Buckshot”