Giving Thanks in All Circumstances

We’re thankful that we have a special day marked out for the giving of thanks. It is refreshing and humbling to remember all that we have to be thankful for from the past year. We take the time to look at photos and remember all that’s happened— so many good things.

Thankful for Thanksgiving chickens!

But we have a memory verse that we learned many years ago and it doesn’t say, “give thanks on the 4th Thursday in November,” or “give thanks when you have a day off and have lots of yummy food to eat,” or “give thanks when everything is going well and you’re feeling good.” It says, “give thanks in all circumstances.”

Now we had lots of good circumstances this year… There were some awesome months in the US reconnecting with so many friends and so much of our family, enjoying the outdoors, making some of our kids’ wishes come true, sharing with people about the islands. There were great times on the islands: our outstanding team, welcoming a new teammate, seeing God work in island hearts, seeing our kids grow.

But there were plenty of hard circumstances too… there was illness and pain, there was death and grief, there were carefully laid plans falling apart, there was saying goodbye to our daughter and leaving her at boarding school, there were rising prices and shortages, there was corruption and unrest, there were tales of violence and tragedy. There are many circumstances that we call out to God, asking for a change in the circumstances. But the verse doesn’t say, “give thanks once the circumstances change.” It says, “give thanks in all circumstances.”

Thankful for son cooking!

Not that we pretend that the hard circumstances don’t exist. Not that we close our eyes to the darkness around us— but we ask God for the ability to give thanks in the midst of it all. Today is the first day of Advent and the theme of the day is hope. We give thanks that God gives us hope in the hard circumstances. Thank you God for sustaining us through illness and pain, for meeting us in our grief and allowing us to cry, for orchestrating our failed plans into new opportunities that we wouldn’t have pursued otherwise. We thank you for a wonderful boarding school, where our daughter is thriving. We are thankful that in the midst of shortages and inflation we have always had enough. We thank you for the vision that one day spears and swords will be turned into farming tools and people will no longer think or plan for war and violence.  We thank you for the hope that change is possible.

Looking back at the year, it may be easier to be thankful for lots of the circumstances that were hard in the moment. We can smile now, but at the time there were no smiles. That’s a good reminder too— thank you God that some day I will be able to see your hand in this and be thankful!

Whether it was easy or difficult to be thankful this long weekend, we hope you had some good times of reflection with grateful hearts, rejoicing and giving thanks!

Thankful for cooling downpours

PRAYERS ANSWERED


Our teammates had a great trip to the French island and the visitor had a good, if short visit here too.  We are thankful for people visiting our island and our teammates being able to go and visit others.  We are thankful that our daughter is on her way here.  Unfortunately, the Sunday flight (as it often is) was canceled, so we have to wait to see her until tomorrow, but we will be thankful in every circumstance.  We are thankful that she finished her term well and is able to come back to us and stay with us for a whole month.  We are thankful for the beginning of advent and the joy and traditions that it brings to our family and the opportunities it gives us to share with our island neighbors.  We are thankful that our teammate and the printer were able to finalize our annual proverbs calendars that are being brought by our daughter— we look forward to giving those out and the openings they will provide for good conversations. We thankful for some cooling rain in the past few days!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
We are still waiting to hear the results of the trial of the former president.  So far, things have remained calm.  Pray that the days ahead with our daughter at home could be marked with lots of lasting memories and special times together.  Pray that we would be able to find the balance between celebrating having her around and giving her space to do her own thing as well as remembering that we still have jobs to do too.  Pray for our friend Uhaju and Tom to be able to start meeting this week to study a story set together.  Pray for his continued growth.  Pray for the island sisters that have struggled to find a time to gather and study this month.