A Month of Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day! And what a day – a day full of food, family, and thinking about what I am thankful for. Today I am thankful for the amazing Thanksgiving feast that my cousins, Grandma, and Aunts prepared. I am thankful for Skyping the family. I am thankful for rest, laughter, and a fun time together.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Happy Thanksgiving! (Thankful: Day 24)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am especially thankful for Janessa and the Chupp family. They've welcomed Damarise and me in for thanksgiving and are wonderful :)

I'm thankful for Janessa's friendship and that God has kept us friends the past three years.

Today's thanksgiving was great!

Mitchell Thanksgiving

Saturday we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with a lot of Mom's side of the family. We had a great time catching up with relatives who I haven't seen in five years. They're all great and we had a wonderful time hanging out.

Some of the many cousins.

Mom and wonderful sister, Aunt Jeanette.

Us kids and Uncle Dennis :) He's great!

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day! It was wonderful to be back with the family and celebrate Thanksgiving with them :)

We played Rook :) Which is always so much fun! While playing Andrew was showing off his big muscles! :) Ha.

Sarah got off her braces a few days before Thanksgiving :) She was a happy camper!

It was SO nice to hang out with Sarah again :)

Playing Rook, our family fun game :)

It was a fun game!

Thanksgiving dinner. Mom cooked us a scrumptious meal, complete with my favourite: cranberry sauce and homemade rolls. Yum! Thanks Mom!

We had a great day hanging out as a family. I'm definitely thankful for them!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy, happy Thanksgiving! Oh, what a wonderful day to reflect on who God is and what He has done in just this past year. Wow! If I were to name it all, I know the list would never end. But, here is just a small list of the many things I am thankful for.

• My family. It is SO good to be with them right now. We all spent Thanksgiving day together, laughing, playing Rook, and eating :) It's been fun. I love being around them. They make me laugh a ton :) And they're just... great! Thank you God for two amazing parents and four absolutely wonderful siblings! I love them!
  
  
• God's Word. Ah! I am SO thankful that God is an unchanging God! I'm so thankful that He keeps His promises! I'm so thankful that His Word is true. I'm thankful that it never changes and that we have the privilege to read His Word.
  
  
• Another year at Covenant College. Being able to attend Covenant College has been wonderful. I'm so thankful that God has continued to provide for Damarise and I to go there. I'm thankful for all that I am learning in and out of classes. I'm thankful for the hall that God has placed me on, for the terrific friends that I have gotten to know, and for the classes that I have been able to be in. It has been a good year and I am so thankful!
  
  
• All the ways of communication: Gmail, Facebook, Skype, iChat, Blogger, and Gmail chat. It's been so nice to be able to communicate with friends and family so easily.
  
  
• Friends. God has blessed me with some pretty amazing people in my life. I am so thankful for all my friends near and far!
  
  
• My laptop.
  
  
• Good books.
  
  
• Hot water that never seems to shut off, actually, all water for that matter :) After living in Mozambique where you'd never know wether the water would be there or not, it is nice to know (for the most part) that there will be water.
  
  
• Electricity! Same as the water. I'm thankful that it's usually on :)
  
  
• The change of seasons. I have now gone through a full year in the US. I love having four seasons as opposed to two. I'm thankful for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
  
  
• Today. I'm thankful for the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family and Uncle Dennis. I'm thankful that we can all be together under one roof. I'm thankful that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever! I'm thankful that He has sustained us and kept us today.
  

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting."

Psalm 107:1

Thankful: on Tuesday

Ah, today was the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break. Right now I am sitting in my room typing out this post while glancing around at my packed bags sitting close at hand. Tomorrow Damarise and I head out for break. It'll be wonderful to get away for a few days, definitely a much need rest. As soon as this break ends we jump into high gear. End-of-the-semester papers will be due, projects will have to be finished, and then exams begins. Yes, these few days of break will be much appreciated!

Anyhow, without further adieu, here is what I am thankful for today:

• An amazing Doctrine professor. Ah! I just love being in Prof. Hutchinson's class. He is an amazing teacher and so passionate about what he teaches. His class is an hour and fifteen minutes long and always leave wishing his class could last hours longer. I have loved learning from him.
  
  
• A beautiful rainstorm and a thick blanket of fog covering the mountain this afternoon.
  
  
• A helpful professor who helped me see what I can do to make a paper better. Very helpful!
  
  
• The excitement that tomorrow I leave!

And, on that note... the traveling banana is off to travel once more :)

'Twas the Week before Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving is coming up in six days. I'm looking forward to being away for a few days, relaxing with the family, and seeing extended family who I haven't seen in about five years (which tends to happen when you've lived across the world for a few years ;) ). It'll be a good time to rest and to specifically set aside a day to give thanks to God.

I decided that in this week before Thanksgiving, I'll try, and hopefully will, post once a day about something I am thankful for. It may be something from that day, or just something that popped into my mind.

Today, I am thankful for:

• The hat and scarf set that my amazing suitemate from last year, Kathleen, crocheted for me. It has been keeping me toasty warm on this slightly cold day.
  
  
• Tissues, hot tea, and cough drops. Yep, I've caught the cold yet again. I'm thankful for an endless supply of hot water, for tea bags of many flavours, and for soft tissues for my chapped nose.
  
  
• Chapel today. It was wonderful and refreshing. Dr. Eric Mason shared from 2 Peter 1:1-9. He was a great speaker and really preached the Word to us.
  
  
• The weekend. I'm thankful for time to rest and hopefully get rid of this cold. I'm also thankful for time to work on projects that are due when I get back from Thanksgiving Break.
  
  
• Janessa Chupp. God has blessed me with such an amazing friend! I love her. We always seem to be going through the same trials or joys, or thinking the same about a lot of stuff going on. I'm thankful for her godly perspective on a lot of life. She not only is encouraging, but also points out things in my life that should change. She listens to me, laughs with me, and challenges me in my walk with the Lord. She has been a huge blessing and I am SO thankful for her friendship.
  
  
• Fingers :) Yes. I'm thankful for fingers! I'm thankful that I have the ability to type out this blog post, write with a pencil, and hold many things. Thank you God for fingers!

Well, that is all for now....

What are you thankful for today?

Thanksgiving 2009

Well, it's that time of year again. Thanksgiving day! :D A day specifically set aside to spend giving thanks to God for all He's done within the year. Boy! There is SO much to be thankful in just this year alone.

I'm thankful for God's never ending faithfulness! Throughout this year alone I have experienced God's faithfulness in countless ways. God has shown that HE is great and that I am nothing without Him. I'm thankful that God has chosen me from before the foundation of the world to be His child! I am blessed beyond words!

I'm so thankful that at the beginning of this year (man! That seems SO long ago) God saved Ian's life. I'm so thankful that God let Ian live and that today Ian is alive, well and his brain is as good as it has always been! I'm also thankful for all God taught me through that experience with Ian being in the hospital. It was a great testimony to my life!

I'm thankful for family!! I absolutely LOVE my family! Dad, Mom, Damarise, Sarah, Ian and Andrew! They are all great, fun and loving. I'm thankful for the letters they send in the mail to me, for the skype calls and for their prayers for Damarise and I :) They are the greatest family ever!

I'm thankful that God has allowed Damarise and I the privilege of going to Covenant College! I still cannot believe Damarise and I are almost finished with our first semester of college! I love everything about Covenant. I love the people, the classes, the atmosphere. I love it all! And I am SO thankful for God's provision in allowing me to go there.

I'm thankful for all my friends! God has blessed me with amazing friends in my life! I have friends in many a different countries and I am thankful for all of them. I'm thankful for the old friends and the new friends. I'm thankful that God has allowed me to meet and befriend such amazing people!

I'm thankful for A/C and heat! :) After living in Mozambique without any central air or heating, I am thankful for that!

I'm thankful for Walmart! It has everything! :) And it's at a convenient place :)

I'm thankful for email, facebook, blogger, skype, ichat, and gmail chat. It is SO easy to communicate with friends and family from all over! :)

I'm thankful for water and electricity that stay on frequently! :D It's so simple and easy knowing that the electricity and water will be on in the morning :)

I'm thankful for the cold! Yes, some people don't like winter.. but I love it! I'm thankful for this cold weather!

I'm thankful for everything that God has blessed me with. I know, that's broad, but there is just too much stuff to list! I'm just thankful for it all!

"Praise the LORD.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

his love endures forever."

-Psalm 106:1

Thanksgiving with the Woodrows

For Thanksgiving on Thursday we got to go to the Woodrows to celebrate and give thanks with them. It was a wonderful time, but sadly, we forgot to take pictures. Whoopsie dasies! I guess we were having to much fun ;) Anyways, if you feel like just reading about it, here it goes. :) 

We got to the Woodrows around 11:30am, and found our place to sit. :) Finding a place to sit for Thanksgiving is fun. We did the same thing at Christmas too. Uncle Charles had drawn a picture on 14 cards and each place setting had a Bible reference on it. We had to look up the verses in the Bible until we found the one that matched our picture. It's a creative way to mix things up a bit and get seated :) Anywho, after that Uncle Charles told us the Thanksgiving story. It was really neat to hear. I hadn't heard all the history before... or maybe I had, but I had forgotten it :P After the story came the food! Mmm Mmm Good! We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, stuffing, salad, olives, pickles, cranberry sauce, and rolls. I'm still stuffed from all of the good food :P After we ate our fill we went around the table and read our verse that was on our place setting. Then we had 5 minutes to write out things we were thankful for. There is SO much!! Anywho, that was really fun. And funny to hear some of the things people put. Toilet paper was on a majority of the lists :P hehe. After hearing all the lists we prayed and gave thanks to God. It was really nice to have that special time just to thank God for everything He is and does. When we were done Mom and Dad went into one of their rooms to rest (they're still getting over some sickness) While they rested up the rest of us played "I've got a secret". There's three teams, one person picks something off their thankful list and that is their secret. Everyone else then tries to guess it but only with 21 questions. :P It was fun... although there were some long ones. (whoops... who knew the stamps in a passport could be so hard to guess :P Haha, but I really am thankful for them! :) )  After that game we played "Password" We stayed in three different teams. Damarise, Bethy and I were on a team together for all the games, so we made up a team name. At first it was "The 3 Einsteins" for the guessing games but when we played Pictionary we changed our name to "The 3 Einstein Da Vincis" :P Anyways, back to where I was. Oh yes, so we play "Password" A game where one person from each team gets together, decides on a word from anyone's thankful list and then can only use one word to describe it to the team. Aunt Julie, Sarah and Gracie beat us on that one. Then we played "Pictionary" Haha... that was a blast!! Aunt Julie, Sarah and Gracie won that one too! They were good! ... After all the games came dessert. Mmm, homemade ice cream, pumpkin pie and apple pie! Yum! It was delicious!!! After dessert when the parents sat around and talked we Woodbulls played around outside :) We had a fun time play ball games, talking, singing, and us girls were trying to figure out what went on in a guy's mind. Hehe... it was fun! We made lots of great memories and I am so thankful to God for the gift of family and siblings! He blessed me with 2 amazing parents, 5 amazing blood siblings, and 5 amazing adopted siblings!!! Thank you God!! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful day thanking God!!

Thanksgiving 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!! Wow! There is so much to be thankful for! In youth group Tuesday night, Kent asked us to think of everything we have ever prayed for or wished for, and compare that to how many times we have thanked God for everything. Wow. He then said that in Malawi the culture there is that when someone gives you something and you don't say "Thank you" the person can take it right back! What if God was like that? If everything He has given us, yet we haven't said thank you for, He took right back. I think this world would be a pretty desolate place. Anyways, here are some things that I have been especially thankful for this past year. 

(They are in no specific order)

• •God's grace, love and mercy. Where would we be without it??
• •God's Word. For our VI Thanksgiving, Ms. Tricia said how thankful she was for the Bible in her own language. I totally agree! I am so thankful for the Bible in English, so that I can read it and learn more about God through it!
• •My Parents. Wow, where to begin?! They have been a huge encouragement and help these past months with applying to colleges and whatnot. I'm so thankful for that, cause I don't know how I would be getting any of that done without them! I'm also thankful for the way they raised me and my siblings. God blessed me so much by providing loving, caring, God glorifying parents who want to see us grow up in the way of the Lord. 
• •My siblings. God has blessed me abundantly by giving me such wonderful siblings. They are best friends who live with me, travel with me, eat with me... do everything together :) They are encouraging, kind, loving, and always ready to help out in any way. I love them! 
• •The Woodbull family. I am so thankful to God for them! Before coming to Mozambique we were praying for godly, Christian friends. Well, God is Jehovah Jirah, and He provided not only friends, but five new siblings :) It has been such a joy and blessing to have family over here in Mozambique! I love all my new siblings! 
• •My friends, near and far. You have all been a blessing and encouragement to me this past year and I am so thankful for you all!
• •The Youth Group here. It is wonderful to have a group of Christian teens here in Nampula (who speak English!) that we can get together with to worship God and learn more about Him. It has been an enormous encouragement the last two years of living here.
• •The internet. I am so thankful that we came onto the mission field in this day and age when we have many ways to quickly communicate with friends back home. The internet is just one of those quick way of communication. I am thankful for facebook, blogger, gmail, skype and chats :)
• •Fans! Whoever invented fans was brilliant and I am so thankful to God that that person did invent them! They are so helpful in keeping the heat down! 
• •Electricity. While living in the States I never really thought about how thankful I am for electricity, but when we moved here and the electricity was going on and off at the most unlikely times, well I realized just how thankful I am for electricity! 
• •Water! Also living in Africa and realizing just how precious water is and how much we rely on it, makes me very thankful for water!
• •Snow. Yes, I know, we don't have it here, but missing it for the last few years has definitely made me more thankful for it. 
• •The piano. I'm thankful that we have an instrument like that to play, and that God has gifted me with he ability to play it. 
• •Apple/Mac. Ok, so maybe I'm being biased. :P But I really am thankful for a computer and iPod! :)
• •Rain! It cools down the air, waters the earth, makes the flowers bloom and the grass grow green. It is a wonderful thing that I am so thankful for! 
• •Christian authors. It's nice to sit down and read a well written book from a Christian prospective. 

Well, there is my list. There are many, many more things that I am thankful for, but I think this is long enough. :) I want to end with Psalm 100, definitely a Thanksgiving Psalm. 

" Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness; 

come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God. 

It is He who made us, and we are His; 

we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving 

and His courts with praise; 

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; 

His faithfulness continues through all generations."

VI Thanksgiving 2008

Saturday the VI team in Nampula got together to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a fun time with lots of good food :), lots of laughs, and just a great time getting to be together. 

Our family was in charge of organizing it all, so we rented the dining hall at SIL for the day and decorated a bit for Thanksgiving. 

Then at 4pm when everyone arrived we ate. Mmm! There were loads of good food! Everything from mashed potatoes, rolls, and stuffing to pumpkin pie, apple pie, and fudge. 

Me and Renata :)

Before dessert we went around the room and everyone said something that they were thankful for :)

Then Mr. De Jongh had a singing time. :) He made up a song for Thanksgiving (It was great!!!) And got all the guys there to do the chorus (A bunch of la la la ) :) It was hilarious! 

After the delicious meal we played volleyball :) It was fun!! 

Anywho, there's our Thanksgiving with the VI. On the actual Thanksgivng day this week we will be celebrating with the Woodrows. :) So, stay tuned for our second Thanksgiving :D

Thanksgiving 2007

Psalm 107:1-"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."
That's what I'm most thankful for this year! That Christ's love endures, not just for today or for an hour yesterday, but FORVER!
Yesterday, Thanksgiving, all the missionaries *even non-americans:) which was more than half* got together for thanksgiving. But, before we left the house at 5 our electricity went out. hehe, nothing unusual, but it sure was hot! Anyways, we went to the Thanksgiving dinner, and then afterwards we did some Scottish Dancing! Soo fun!! But it was HOT! anyways, we got home and all really needed to take a shower! The electricity was still out, but hey, it's fine using a candle while taking a shower, but when we turned on the shower all we got was.... nothing. :( Soo, us girls and Andrew slept out in the living room where it was cooler, and around midnight the electricity turned on! PTL! But, still no water:( (we just got it back around 10...it's slowly coming out:) )
Anyways, all that made me think about how all the things in the world are so temporary! And a lot of times we rely on them instead of on God. Yah, I know, it's kinda hard to rely on water and electricity, but we do. Like 1 John 2:17a says," The world and its desires will pass away..." These things aren't gonna last!! But Christ's love DOES last! It endures through the hardest of times, or the times when we are without electricity or water, and it endures forever!!!
So, that's what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving! Thankful for God pouring out His love on us unworthy sinners, sending His Son to die so that through His death and resurrection we might be pardoned from our sins and cleansed within! So that we may live eternally with Christ, worshipping God forever and ever!